It's never a bad time to send another billion to Ukraine. I mean, they're good with their money, right — they're not corrupt or anything?
What's that?
$40 million? Stolen? No way, they'd never do that. They're, like, the good guys.
Oh, I see.
Yup, and these are just the bozos who got caught. Imagine how much moolah has up and vanished since we started sending billions of dollars their way. I bet it's a lot.
Five Ukrainian officials were arrested this weekend on accusations of stealing nearly $40 million in funds meant to purchase military equipment for the war against Russia.
Ukraine's security service said members of the defense ministry conspired with members of a Ukrainian arms firm to embezzle the funds, which were meant to purchase 100,000 mortar shells. The allegations come amid division in the U.S. over whether to send more aid to Ukraine, with some critics pointing to Ukraine's longtime struggles with corruption.
The five individuals arrested face up to 12 years in prison if found guilty. Ukraine's prosecutor general says the $39.6 million has since been seized and returned to the defense budget.
Accusations from Ukraine say defense officials organized the payment to Lviv Arsenal, a defense contract firm, to secure the delivery of artillery shells. The ordnance never arrived, however, and the funds were instead transferred to accounts belonging to the defense officials and members of the firm.
Yeah, uhh, are we sure these are the guys we want spending our money?
I mean, at least they caught them this time, but somehow that doesn't make me feel much better about this.
Just look at this article from back in October concerning the "rooting out" of corruption in Ukraine's government after Zelenskyy fired his defense minister.
'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. 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,' Shuster wrote.
'Simon, you're mistaken,' an aide said. 'People are stealing like there's no tomorrow.'
Yeah, looks like people are still "stealing like there's no tomorrow."
But hey, how about another billion for Ukraine, ay?
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