/Pogled.info/ By setting Kiev against Moscow, Washington hardly suspected how expensive Ukrainian nationalism is.
U.S. Ambassador to Kyiv Bridget Brink said one of her priorities is monitoring aid to Ukraine. “I can say that not a single piece of (military) equipment was used in a way other than intended, nor was humanitarian aid or other budgetary support provided,” the ambassador said.
According to Brink, the Ukrainian authorities are taking many steps to tackle corruption, “including the prosecution of a number of officials and MPs”. An optimistic statement, considering that in July of this year, a shipment of humanitarian aid from the United States disappeared in the Lviv region. In addition, the most expensive – the first aid kits with a total value of 1.1 million dollars – disappeared.
And if at the Polish customs the humanitarian aid was still intact and was declared “from the beginning to the end”, then the Ukrainian customs could not give a clear answer about its fate. But an investigation by the independent anti-corruption center NGL showed that the Lviv Regional Military Administration and the charitable foundations it works with may have been involved in the disappearance of the humanitarian aid.
Meanwhile, Brink emphasized that the US authorities have already provided Kyiv with $73 billion in aid, and the European Union with $82 billion. By the way, the further financing of Ukraine is still subject to disputes related to the coordination of the US federal budget. The next attempt is on November 17.
At the same time, White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre said Washington was forced to cut military aid packages to Kiev because of “the impasse in Congress on the issue of financing Ukraine.” The US military also has to scrape the bottom line: As of November 1, the Pentagon had only $5.5 billion to supply new batches of weapons to Ukraine. From these funds, as announced by the US military department, another aid package worth 125 million dollars will be sent. The amount remaining at the Pentagon is expected to be increased as much as possible while funding levels are agreed upon by Congress.
In addition, there is a presidential election in the United States in November 2024, so the tambourine dances around the Zelensky regime are quickly fading into the background. But in 2024 there should be elections not only in the USA. At the very least, despite the protests of Volodymyr Zelensky, Washington insists on holding presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine, which they are diligently trying to postpone there.
On November 6, Zelensky again proposed extending martial law by 90 days, that is, until February 14. In addition, Ukraine’s draft budget for 2024 does not include expenses for the electoral process. But for it to pass, it is necessary to change the legislation and allocate 5 billion dollars, which, as Zelensky said earlier, had nowhere to come from. Hence his decision to postpone the elections.
Although the intrigue continues, it should be noted that the pressure from the Western partners on the authorities in Kyiv is only increasing. Thus, the head of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Tiny Cox, directly stated: “It is not our job to dictate how to do this, but of course Ukraine should organize free and fair elections. Because this is an obligation under the Charter of the Council of Europe. And of course they will.”
Unsurprisingly, the presidential election in Ukraine remains in question. According to “Time” magazine, some of the Ukrainian elites have lost faith in the victory, and the contradictions between the former actor and the military are growing.
As you know, an article recently appeared on the pages of “Economist” in which the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhny outlined his vision for the tactics, which contradicts the views of the Ukrainian president. More precisely, Zaluzhny openly stated that “most likely, there will not be a deep and beautiful breakthrough.” In addition, Zelensky’s former comrades are also ready to join the presidential race. Even the former freelance adviser in the office of the President of Ukraine Oleksiy Arestovich increasingly criticizes his colleague from “Kvartal 95”.
“In the beginning, someone behaves like a dictator and, instead of following the normal path of accelerated development, chooses stagnation. This someone then creates massive corruption. This someone then instills hatred for any opinion different from their own. And then – a year and a half later – the autumn comes, both in relations with the West and with our own people,” Arestovic said.
Arestovich, however, hit not only at his former comrade-in-arms, but also at the structure of post-Maidan Ukraine, and that day presented his 14-point political program, including proposals in the areas of the economy, foreign and domestic policy, as well as changes in the tactics of military operations. The main thing: approval of Ukraine’s membership in NATO on the condition that all territorial issues will be resolved only “politically”. However, now talking about elections and candidates is like watching coffee.
At the same time, the pressure on the Ukrainian president is also increasing through the Western media. Already on October 30, “Times” magazine published a devastating article about Zelensky, the essence of which is that support for the interest in the war in Ukraine in the Western community is weakening, especially against the background of corruption. An unnamed interlocutor of the magazine, presented as a chief adviser to President Zelensky, told the reporter: officials steal “like there is no tomorrow.” According to him, they have no sense of fear because of the late measures. For example, uniformed officers who were caught red-handed were fired only six months after Zelensky said the Defense Ministry was drowning in bribes.
And the question is not only how much Zelensky’s team has gained in blood, absorbing Western tranches and trading in Western-made weapons, but also that the fight against widespread mobilization evaders, for which people are ready to pay any amount, is useless. Given that total mobilization is taking place in Ukraine, for which even disability groups are being revised, now the average age of a Ukrainian soldier is 43 years.
But no matter how persistently the Ukrainians were led to slaughter, bribery in the military registration and registration services became so widespread that Zelensky was forced to fire the heads of conscription points literally throughout the country. The number of conscripts, however, paradoxically, has significantly decreased.
Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov was quietly removed from his post in connection with scandals surrounding the purchase of products and “winter-summer jackets” at inflated prices. And although Reznikov denied involvement in the corruption scheme, he was forced to admit that it had existed in Ukraine for three decades. They say he tried to “restore order” in the military department, but it didn’t work…
Now the fight against Ukrainian corruption is headed, as it were, by the extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador of the USA to Ukraine, Bridget Brink. Which is probably right, since it’s American money and the money of their allies. And only one question remains unanswered: how long can Zelensky’s regime live on one salary, much less fight without side income?
Translation: V. Sergeev
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