In a recent interview with podcaster Lex Friedman, when asked about Ukrainian corruption and accusations, Zelensky, while admitting that “there are many issues”, claimed they had the “most sophisticated” mechanism to fight corruption, “as required by the European Union”, and gave as an example the fact that Ihor Kolomoysky (former Governor of Dnipropetrovsk), “the most influential Ukrainian oligarch”, is now in prison. However, Zelensky also, in a way, turned the accusation around by saying:

“During all this time of the war, around $177 billion have been voted for or decided upon, $177 billion… Let’s be honest. We have not received half of this money… where is the half? If you find the second half you will find corruption” (around 2:18:00).

The Ukrainian leader then asked: “is it corruption? Whose corruption?” He added that when the US agrees on a certain sum, the way it is spent is questionable. His example was: Ukraine offered to use its own cargo jets to transport American arms, but the US refused and chose to use American cargo jets instead, which is way more expensive; Zelensky’s reasoning here being that, by employing Ukrainian ones, it would be possible to save money and Kyiv could thus get more weapons. Zelensky then asks quite rhetorically whether this is about “lobbyism” and adds that “I can’t be open about it, nor did I intend a scandal to arise”

Zelensky’s claims about his country’s anti-corruption efforts are hardly convincing. The issue with his former........

© Blitz