Ukrainian President Zelensky announced over the weekend that he would be replacing his defense minister amid investigations into the financial mishandling of military contracts as well as a "failed" counter offensive against Russia.
Oleksii Reznikov handed in his resignation notice on Monday, days after an oligarch in Zelensky's inner circle, Ihor Kolomoisky, was arrested for fraud.
Zelensky has appeared to crack down on corruption in his country after being made aware of concerns from allies that aid money was not being used as intended. The United States has been a key voice in these concerns. Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, met with Ukrainian officials last week to work through solutions to combat wartime corruption.
While Rezinikov was not personally named in the allegations, it has been implied that corruption was taking place under his leadership. Zelensky had additionally fired nine senior government officials earlier in the year over allegations that they had issued funding for a slew of things including taking luxury vacations, and just last month he sacked a handful of military recruiters for taking bribes.
“The question here is, ‘Where is the money?’” said Daria Kaleniuk, the executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center in Ukraine. “Corruption can kill… Depending on how effective we are in guarding the public funds, the soldier will either have a weapon or not have a weapon.”
Government figures showed that almost $1 billion in weapons contracts had missed their delivery dates. But on top of the alleged mismanagement of funds, it is known that the Ukraine counteroffensive against Russia that was planned to take place in spring has been slow to progress. Just last night, TASS reported that Putin declared it "has failed, not stalled" and "hopes it will remain this way."
Ukrainian officials have been pushing back against these emerging claims for months, with one telling critics to "shut up."
"Criticising the slow pace of (the) counteroffensive equals ... spitting into the face of (the) Ukrainian soldier who sacrifices his life every day, moving forward and liberating one kilometre of Ukrainian soil after another," Ukraine's Foreign Minister told reporters on Thursday. "I would recommend all critics to shut up, come to Ukraine and try to liberate one square centimetre by themselves."
According to Breitbart, “Transparency International gave Ukraine a score of 33 out of 100 in its annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), ranking 116th in the world and the second-lowest in all of Europe, only behind Russia.”
Neo-liberal news publications such as the New York Times are finally starting to acknowledge the rampant corruption problem in the Russian war, stating that “enduring challenge of corruption in Ukraine” has “emerged as a rare area of criticism of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s leadership.”
