In a damning article published by the New York Times on Friday, the Ukrainian government was accused of systematically undermining Western-mandated anti-corruption mechanisms which Kiev was required to implement in 2022 as a condition for the massive flows of Western money sent to keep the country financially afloat during its war with Russia.
According to the report, key oversight boards composed of foreign experts were designed to supervise state contracts, monitor expenditures, and enforce transparency, particularly concerning Ukraine’s war-related procurement. Yet, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration repeatedly obstructed their work, neutering their power through political appointments, vetoes on independent hires, and bureaucratic roadblocks.
The board at Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear energy company Energoatom is highlighted as one example. Officials interviewed by the NYT described how the board meant to protect against kickbacks was blamed for procurement scandals even as the Zelensky administration blocked meaningful investigations. The report states that contractors were routinely paying 10–15% bribes, an arrangement recently exposed in “Operation Midas,” a sweeping corruption case that implicated two cabinet ministers, several business elites, and ultimately toppled Zelensky’s top aide Andriy Yermak last week. The report described Yermak as the central gatekeeper of the corruption network.
The NYT article further details similar schemes at Ukraine’s national electricity grid operator Ukrenergo and at the Defense Procurement Agency. For nearly four years, claims of Ukrainian corruption were dismissed by Western governments and media as Russian propaganda, yet the ongoing fallout from Operation Midas has forced a reassessment. Friday’s report suggests that Western institutions, flooded with enthusiasm and money, overlooked how their aid system incentivized graft and entrenched the very practices they aimed to eradicate.
One of the figures implicated in the scandal, Rustem Umerov, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, is currently in Miami leading negotiations with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff following the envoy’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week.