/ world today news/ As President Joe Biden and bipartisan Senate leadership struggle to find a compromise that would allow Congress to transfer tens of billions more to help Ukraine, Ukrainian Defense Ministry officials have been accused of conspiring to embezzle funds for the war.
The SBU, Ukraine’s security service, said officials conspired with officials from a Ukrainian arms company in an attempt to embezzle nearly $40 million intended to buy 100,000 mortar rounds as Ukraine struggles to continue its war with Russia.
Five people have been charged and each could face up to twelve years in prison, the SBU said on Saturday. Another person was detained while trying to flee the country. The investigation is related to events that began just a few months after the outbreak of war.
“It’s truly disgusting,” Congressman Eli Crane of Arizona told The American Conservative in a written statement about America’s willingness to turn a blind eye to Ukrainian corruption.
“This money would go a long way here at home to provide for the American people – to whom these funds truly belong,” he said.
“When the ‘one party’ sent 113 billion US tax dollars to a country whose leader dissolved rival political parties and aimed to suspend national elections, did they really expect a full and clean accounting?”
In August 2022, representatives of the Ministry of Defense signed a contract with the Lviv Arsenal for artillery shells worth $39.6 million. After the Ukrainian government paid the Lviv Arsenal, the company’s officials had to transfer the funds to another business registered abroad, which would deliver the ordered artillery shells to Ukraine.
But the money never reached the foreign company. Instead, the funds ended up in several bank accounts scattered across Ukraine and the Balkans.
The embezzled funds were seized by investigators and returned to Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, according to Ukraine’s Prosecutor General.
In a phone interview with The American Conservative, Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana sarcastically said he was “shocked” by the reports.
“Just a few years ago, the only thing we knew about Ukraine was that it was the most corrupt country anyone had ever heard of. “Ukraine has been a laundromat for dirty money for dirty politicians, starting with Hunter Biden because of Pete,” Rosendale continued.
“To even try to believe and hope that maybe funding is better managed now than it was before is ridiculous.”
“I’m not sure what’s worse: US tax dollars embezzled in one of the most corrupt countries in the world, or that those funds should have been spent on promoting a potential nuclear conflict with no end in sight,” Crain said.
“It’s clear that the money earmarked for Ukraine is not going where it should, and America has no real oversight of the more than $100 billion that has gone out the door,” Congressman Lauren Bobert of Colorado said in a written statement to TAC.
“That’s why me and my colleagues at Freedom [коукъс] we are calling for a full audit of the funds for Ukraine and I do not support giving them a single penny. Instead, we should worry about the security of our own borders. America First.”
“Unfortunately, this single instance of fraud is likely just the tip of the iceberg,” Crain wrote.
The congressman from Arizona would be right. The abuse case is just the latest blow for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is courting voters in 2019 with his anti-corruption platform but has struggled to rein in Ukraine’s historic and widespread corruption — especially since the outbreak of war.
The embezzlement of contracts, in which officials of the Ministry of Defense and employees of the Lviv Arsenal were caught, is one of the main sources of corruption in wartime Ukraine.
At one point in 2023, the New York Times reported that about $980 million worth of arms contracts had missed their delivery dates. Ukraine’s parliament noted that some of the money to pay for the weapons simply disappeared — often into the accounts of troubled arms dealers.
In addition, Ukrainian media reported that the Ukrainian military regularly overpaid for basic goods and supplies. In one case, two Ministry of Defense officials – a deputy minister and a procurement chief – were arrested for buying expensive eggs.
In August 2023, Zelensky sacked all 24 regional heads of the Ukrainian army’s recruitment for widespread bribery and corruption. “
The system must be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery during war are treason,” Zelensky said in a video posted on social media explaining his decision.
From February 2022 to August 2023, Ukrainian state prosecutors filed more than 100 cases against nearly three dozen recruiters. Several were found guilty of accepting bribes to allow Ukrainian men to avoid conscription and being sent to the front.
In one case, two recruiting officers were accused of forging documents that labeled men unfit for military service in exchange for cash – up to $10,000.
In June 2023, Ukrainska Pravda reported that Egor Smirnov, a military officer from southern Odessa, had squandered millions on real estate in a coastal region of Spain and luxury cars. Smirnov was sent to the front for his crimes.
Regardless, the Senate side of the Capitol complex continues to circle around an immigration deal (which is likely dead on arrival in the House) that aims to free up over $100 billion in additional funding for a range of causes. Most of this additional funding, about $60 billion, is intended to help Ukraine.
“Trying to tie our funding for southern border security to funding from Ukraine to funding from Israel to funding for disaster relief in Hawaii through an additional is a huge mistake,” Rosendale told TAC.
Rosendale has introduced legislation in the House of Representatives that would prevent further funding for Ukraine until the US regains operational control of its southern border.
Congress should “use the power of the purse,” Rosendale said.
“Don’t send this money to Ukraine. Let’s start talking or encouraging [Украйна] to hold talks with Russia in order to reach some kind of peace agreement.
That’s part of the reason Rosendale supported former President Donald Trump and believes Trump will win a second term.
“When he gets into office, we’re going to stop funding these wars, we’re going to stop sending American weapons there, and we’re going to force countries to the table to have the same conversations I’ve been talking about.”
Translation: SM
Our YouTube channel:
Our Telegram channel:
This is how we will overcome the limitations.
Share on your profiles, with friends, in groups and on pages.
#American #Conservative #Ukrainian #double #game #clear #considers #billions #aid
