As the Biden administration announced a new round of aid to Ukraine worth up to $1 billion on Wednesday, some analysts warned that reports of continued bribery and mismanagement of funds could hurt Western support for the country’s war effort.
“This type of reporting will raise concerns among the taxpayers who fund this aid at a time when we have significant domestic demands on our resources,” Victoria Coates, vice president of foreign policy at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital.
Coates’ comments came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Sunday that Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov would be replaced by Rustem Umerov, arguing that a change in leadership was needed after the country experienced “more than 550 days of all-out war.” .
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During the Ukrainian leader’s late-night address on Sunday, Zelensky noted the Defense Ministry’s need for “new approaches” and called for “other formats of interaction with both the military and society.”
UKRAINIAN DEFENSE MINISTER OLEKSII REZNIKOV WILL BE REPLACED BY RUSTEM UMEROV: ZELESKIY
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images / File | Maxym Marusenko / NurPhoto via Getty Images / File)
“The Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine is well acquainted with this person, and Umerov needs no introduction. I expect support for this candidacy from parliament,” Zelensky said.
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However, the move also comes against the backdrop of renewed reports of corruption in Ukraine. Reznikov was criticized in the Ukrainian media for overpaying for military jackets last month that cost $57 more than usual.
According to a New York Times report on Monday, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan recently met with three senior Ukrainian officials to discuss the country’s efforts to combat wartime corruption. Zelensky has responded to the pressure with several anti-corruption initiatives, including a controversial proposal to use his martial law powers to punish corruption as treason.
“We have a long history of working with Ukraine on anti-corruption issues and welcome President Zelensky’s commitment to fighting corruption and recognize the great progress Ukraine has made,” a White House National Security Council spokesman told Fox News Digital. “We will continue to support Ukraine in implementing important anti-corruption reforms. This includes strengthening independent anti-corruption institutions such as the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and the High Anti-Corruption Authority. “The court aims to ensure that there is no place for corruption in Ukrainian society today.”
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According to the New York Times report, government figures earlier this year showed that about $980 million in arms contracts had missed delivery dates, while some advance payments for weapons were transferred to arms dealers’ overseas accounts. Meanwhile, Ukrainian media reports have begun to question overpayments for army basic supplies such as food.
Reznikov was not directly implicated in the mismanagement of the funds, but submitted his resignation on Monday amid an effort to root out corruption that has the potential to jeopardize Ukraine’s war effort.
Oleksii Reznikov is shown during a press conference in Kiev, Ukraine, August 28, 2023. (Andriy Zhyhaylo / Obozrevatel / Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
BLINKEN visits Kiev unannounced to discuss Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia
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“Corruption can kill,” Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center in Ukraine, told the New York Times. “Depending on how effectively we protect public funds, the soldier will either have a gun or not have a gun.”
Efforts to combat corruption in Ukraine’s leadership continued on Tuesday. The Washington Post reported that the country’s lawmakers were trying to reinstate an anti-corruption rule that would require them to disclose assets. The move was necessitated by the International Monetary Fund, which made the rule a condition for disbursing part of a $15.6 billion economic aid package to Ukraine.
However, the question remains as to how committed the leaders are to fighting corruption in the country, as lawmakers have inserted a delay into the new regulation so that the disclosure requirement will not come into force for another year.
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The renewed anti-corruption push comes as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced visit to Kiev on Wednesday, a sign of continued U.S. support amid a slow, three-month counteroffensive against Russian forces in Ukraine’s occupied territories.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba (left) greets U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken before a meeting at the State Department in Kyiv on September 6, 2023. (Brendan Smialowski / Pool / AFP via Getty Images)
During the visit, Blinken unveiled a new round of funding assistance for Ukraine, including $175 million from Defense Department stocks, $100 million in military funding, $90.5 million in humanitarian demining assistance, $300 million to support the country’s law enforcement and $206 million in humanitarian assistance and $5.4 million in forfeited oligarch assets intended to support the reintegration and rehabilitation of veterans.
The new package also includes $203 million to support transparency and accountability reform efforts in the country. A Foreign Ministry press release said the package would “assist in combating corruption, the rule of law and the justice sector, as well as building investigative capacity.” and prosecute war crimes committed by Russia,” a point Blinken reiterated at a news conference in Kyiv.
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“We support the Government of Ukraine in its anti-corruption efforts and in its efforts to ensure accountability and full transparency of all assistance we provide, as well as the security of defense equipment and technology provided by the United States.” President Zelenskyy and “I have today over these issues and the importance of continued reform and the fight against corruption for Ukraine’s democratic future,” Blinken said.
RUSSIA WAIVES UNDER INTERNATIONAL RULES TO INVESTIGATE PRIGOZHIN CRASH: REPORT
A polyclinic burns after an apparent Russian attack in Dnipro, Ukraine, May 26, 2023. (State Emergency Service of Ukraine via AP)
Rebekah Koffler, a strategic military intelligence analyst, former senior defense intelligence official and author of “Putin’s Playbook,” told Fox News Digital that withdrawing U.S. military aid to Ukraine in response to corruption would be a fatal blow to the country’s war effort would force Zelensky to the negotiating table to negotiate with Russia.
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“If the US would start [to] “If we reduce support for Ukraine it would certainly encourage Russia, but it would shorten the already protracted war of attrition because President Zelensky would likely limit his ambitions to win,” Koffler said.
However, Koffler also argued that continued U.S. aid to Ukraine was unlikely to result in a complete military victory, saying Zelensky’s goals were “unrealistic.”
“His goals in this war are unrealistic and unattainable, with or without U.S. help,” Koffler said. “The distribution of forces in favor of Russia is so great that a victory for Ukraine is mathematically impossible.”
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Zelensky says Ukraine has developed weapons with a range of 400 miles after the attack on the Russian airport
Coates noted that Ukraine has had a “historic battle with endemic corruption” and argued that it is not surprising that some of the external aid that has flowed into the country over the past 18 months has been siphoned off by bad actors had been.
She pointed to a Heritgage Foundation project oversight report released over the summer that suggested such corruption was possible, and argued that Zelensky’s recent actions appeared to confirm those concerns.
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Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba (right) and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken make a statement to the media before their meeting in Kiev, Ukraine, September 6, 2023. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool via Portal)
Zelensky confirms that at least 16 people were killed in a Russian airstrike on the market town
Coates argued that U.S. leaders should take taxpayer concerns seriously. These efforts could be aided by the appointment of an inspector general to oversee the use of U.S. taxpayer dollars.
“Given the complexity of aid flowing to Ukraine from the state, USAID and the Department of Defense, as well as Ukraine’s historic problem with corruption…a single, dedicated inspector general would create a single body of dedicated oversight for all of these entities.” Coates said he said lawmakers from both parties “should come together to help Ukrainians make sure this money doesn’t end up in the wrong hands.”
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“It would have been much better for the Biden administration to promote this additional oversight as a unit that could help the Ukrainians — who are, after all, in a heated war — and increase the trust of the American people,” Coates said.
However, the National Security Council spokesman argued that there is an oversight framework within the State Department, telling Fox News Digital that the existing inspectors general already exercise “key oversight” within the agency.
“Congress has already allocated funds to existing State Department, Defense Department and USAID IGs under the Ukraine Amendment Act,” the spokesman said. “Their work is in full swing and they are providing important oversight after meeting with Ukrainian officials and traveling to Kiev. We believe that the independence, expertise and access of existing IGs allow for effective short and long-term auditing. Creation of a new one.” “Special inspectors general rather than relying on existing IGs familiar with these programs would be duplication and time consuming.”
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Firefighters battle a blaze following an apparent Russian attack on a residential complex in Uman, Ukraine, April 28, 2023. (National Police of Ukraine via AP)
Meanwhile, Koffler believes it is unlikely that the US will begin cutting aid to Ukraine. However, she pointed out that the US government’s efforts to eradicate corruption in the country are unlikely to be successful.
“The US can do little or nothing to ensure that US military aid funds in Ukraine are not mismanaged because corruption is a way of life in Ukraine, as it is in Russia,” Koffler said. “It is naïve to think that corruption can be eliminated in a country where it has existed for centuries and is woven into the way of life.”
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Still, the spokesman for the National Security Council told Fox News Digital that it is committed to eradicating corruption in Ukraine, noting that the US government has worked with the World Bank to set up oversight mechanisms and that the defense and the State Department had done so While there are plans to counteract illegal weapons diversion, so far we have seen “no evidence” of a larger problem.
“We agree that oversight is key, which is why we have strong accountability and oversight measures in place,” the spokesman said. “We thank Congress for the additional support it has provided in the previous Ukraine supplements, which has helped us improve our oversight. Throughout the war in Ukraine, the U.S. government has prioritized actions to ensure that U.S.-funded assistance reaches those it is intended for.”