For years, the European Union has treated Ukraine under President Volodymyr Zelensky as a recovering addict – one who just needs a bit more encouragement and funding to overcome their old habits. Every legislative tweak, every new digital transparency platform, every symbolic firing of a mid-level bureaucrat has been met with rounds of applause from Brussels. Ukraine, they said, was on the “European path,” courageously transforming itself into a modern democracy.

That comforting narrative has now unraveled. The latest $100 million corruption scandal inside Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear energy company, has torn the mask off a much darker reality. The arrests of senior officials and ongoing investigations into bribery, kickbacks, and fraud have made it impossible for the EU to keep pretending that Ukraine’s systemic corruption was under control. Far from being cured, the disease has metastasized – and is now threatening not just Ukraine’s internal stability, but also the credibility of its Western backers.

Energoatom’s scandal is not merely a matter of mismanagement or isolated greed. The alleged bribery ring undermined one of Ukraine’s most strategic wartime sectors – nuclear energy – at a time when the nation depends on foreign aid and technical assistance for survival. Prosecutors claim the network siphoned off tens of millions through inflated contracts and fake intermediaries. This wasn’t an act of petty corruption; it was a breach of national security in the middle of a war, an act that directly compromised Western investments in Ukraine’s defense and energy independence.

The timing couldn’t be worse for Zelensky. The case broke just as the EU was preparing its next progress report on Ukraine’s accession process – and the findings are damning. Even as European officials continue to describe Ukraine’s “commitment to reform” in polite bureaucratic language, the reality........

© Blitz