Share
News

Top Zelenskyy Adviser Admits the Truth About Corruption in Ukraine: 'People Are Stealing Like There's No Tomorrow'

Share

People at the highest levels of Ukraine’s government are lining their pockets with cash as U.S. taxpayers prepare to fund yet another year of that nation’s war against Russia, an adviser to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

Time magazine published a lengthy story on Monday about reporter Simon Shuster’s recent visit to the war-torn country in which he shared insights he said he gained into the morale of those leading Ukraine nearly two years after Russia invaded it.

According to an unnamed senior adviser to Zelenskyy, people at the top are “stealing” like there is no tomorrow and Ukraine’s president faces pressure to root out corruption as its allies continue to give the country everything it asks for.

Shuster followed Zelenskyy back to Ukraine after he and his closest advisers visited the U.S. in September.

He commented that Ukraine’s president “can feel during his travels that global interest in the war has slackened. So has the level of international support.”

The reporter also spoke to an adviser who said that in spite of some internal housecleaning in the Zelenskyy Cabinet, theft is rampant.

“Amid all the pressure to root out corruption, I assumed, perhaps naively, that officials in Ukraine would think twice before taking a bribe or pocketing state funds,” Shuster wrote.

“But when I made this point to a top presidential adviser in early October, he asked me to turn off my audio recorder so he could speak more freely. ‘Simon, you’re mistaken,’ he says. ‘People are stealing like there’s no tomorrow.'”

If you could click a button to listen to a Western Journal article, would you use it?

While Zelenskyy fired numerous Defense Ministry officials this year to change a perception that corruption was widespread, the adviser told Shuster that people behind the corruption did not “feel any fear” about facing consequences for misusing government funds as Ukraine relies on international aid.

Shutter added, “By the time [Zelenskyy] acted ahead of his U.S. visit, ‘it was too late,’ says another senior presidential adviser. Ukraine’s Western allies were already aware of the scandal by then.

“Soldiers at the front had begun making off-color jokes about ‘Reznikov’s eggs,’ a new metaphor for corruption. ‘The reputational damage was done,’ says the adviser.”

Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov resigned in September in what Reuters referred to as a “wartime shakeup” of Zelenskyy’s Cabinet.

Related:
'America's Worst Mayor' Gets Completely Humiliated in Front of Her Own Party as Caucus Voters Take a Stand

Reports that people in the Ukrainian government are “stealing” come as President Joe Biden and U.S. lawmakers face pushback from taxpayers about their blank check policy toward funding a war with no end in sight.

According to CNN, Congress had approved $113 billion for Ukraine as of Sept. 21.

Lawmakers have not tracked the funds once they have been disbursed, which has sparked calls for transparency regarding exactly what U.S. taxpayers are going further into debt for.

The United States was $33.7 trillion in debt as of Tuesday, according to the U.S. Debt Clock.


A Note from Our Staff:

Did you know that 90 percent of advertisers will have nothing to do with The Western Journal? The liberal elites have put us on one of their financial kill lists.

They did it because we’ve told the truth and spoken out against them for over a decade. And since they couldn’t shut us up, now, they’re trying to starve us out.

We’re turning to you because, frankly, we have to have your help. It might not sound like much, but just one subscription to The Western Journal can make a real difference.

We don’t have a huge staff, big salaries, or deep donor pockets. We’re family-owned and independent. But because we're independent from the elites, we have to rely on readers like you.

Can we count on you for just a single subscription? The cost of a month-long subscription is less than a single cup of Starbucks coffee. And, unlike with Starbucks, you can be 100 percent certain that every penny we spend goes toward fighting for traditional American values and against liberal elites.

Please help us continue exposing the truth. Please subscribe today.

Thank you for reading The Western Journal!

Truth and Accuracy

Submit a Correction →



We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

Tags:
, , , , , , , ,
Share
Johnathan Jones has worked as a reporter, an editor, and producer in radio, television and digital media.
Johnathan "Kipp" Jones has worked as an editor and producer in radio and television. He is a proud husband and father.




Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.

Conversation