Ukraine anti-corruption push: Positive, but midranking officials must also be targeted
Tom Rogan
The anti-corruption drive launched by Ukraine over the past few days is long overdue. But while positive, it will have little lasting effect unless Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government maintains this action and targets midranking officials as well as those at the top.
Corruption in Ukraine is, or at least should be, a top concern for the U.S. government. While Ukraine deserves the U.S. aid it is receiving (the European Union should be, but isn’t, matching U.S. aid levels), any tolerance of corruption is utterly unacceptable. American taxpayers rightfully expect their money to be spent prudently in pursuit of a single objective: the survival and success of Ukraine’s democracy against Russian imperial aggression.
Unfortunately, Zelensky’s administration has shown only a tentative seriousness about confronting corruption until now. His heroic wartime leadership aside, Zelensky himself has been linked to questionable offshore financial holdings.
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This isn’t to discount the actions we’re now seeing. High-ranking officials, including a deputy infrastructure minister, deputy defense minister, and senior prosecutor, are among those who have been dismissed. Still, the skimming of state budgets on display is concerning and likely only the tip of the iceberg.
Anti-corruption officials found $38,000 USD in the deputy infrastructure minister’s office, and a deputy defense minister is accused of inflating food prices for supplies needed to feed troops. This is Russian-style logistics procurement. It should not be Ukraine-style.
Equally alarming, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov reacted to the reports concerning his deputy by ordering an investigation not into possible wider corruption but rather into the leak itself. He sought to wash away the reek of scandal by blaming a simple “technical error.”
That’s not good enough.
To effect true change in Ukraine, which has long grappled with a culture of corruption, Zelensky’s government must recognize that war is no excuse for inaction. Indeed, the war is an attenuated requirement for action on corruption. In order to maintain Western support for his government, Zelensky must endeavor to be beyond reproach. Corruption scandals left uncontested will only fuel the otherwise misguided argument of some in Congress that Ukraine does not deserve significant American support.
Ukraine must also confront the corruption of mid-ranking officials. Numerous allegations have been made of corrupt officers in command of Ukrainian military units since the war began. Ukraine’s intelligence and security apparatus is also known to struggle with budget skimming (albeit to a degree nowhere near to the formalized corruption that defines their Russian counterparts). The problem with midranking corruption is that it fosters the cultural expectation of lower-ranking personnel to do the same thing. It also inculcates midranking officials with the belief that promotion is about accessing more lucrative corruption rather than providing more effective command.
Put simply, while positive, Ukraine’s current crackdown must be followed by much broader and more aggressive action.
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