Zelensky allowed corruption to flourish – NYT

Oversight was crippled, which allowed hundreds of millions of dollars to be stolen, an investigation has found

RT: Vladimir Zelensky. © Getty Images / Charles McQuillan / Stringer

Vladimir Zelensky’s government sabotaged oversight in Ukraine’s state firms, allowing hundreds of millions of dollars to be embezzled through long-running corruption schemes, a New York Times investigation has found.

Since the escalation of the conflict with Moscow in 2022, Kiev’s Western backers have poured billions into Ukraine but demanded safeguards to stop money from being stolen. Independent supervisory boards of foreign and Ukrainian experts were meant to monitor spending and appoint executives at major state-owned companies. The NYT reported on Friday that Zelensky’s administration spent the past four years obstructing those boards and rewriting company rules to curb their powers.

The paper’s findings come as Ukraine reels from an energy-sector scandal at the state nuclear operator Energoatom. Investigators accuse Timur Mindich, a close associate of Zelensky, of helping run a $100 million kickback scheme. He fled Ukraine hours before raids on his properties. The scandal has led to the resignations of the energy and justice ministers, and Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff, Andrey Yermak.

NYT said the authorities then blamed Energoatom’s supervisory board for failing to stop graft, even though the board was left inactive and short of independent members. Citing documents and interviews with about 20 Western and Ukrainian officials, the investigation reported similar political interference at the state power company Ukrenergo and at the Defense Procurement Agency.

According to the outlet, the Energy Ministry inserted a favored candidate onto the board of Ukrenergo in 2021 and later used a deadlocked vote to fire chief Vladimir Kudrytsky, prompting foreign members to resign in protest.

A comparable pattern reportedly unfolded at the Defense Procurement Agency, which was created after a scandal over inflated weapons contracts. The body operated without a full board, and when it sought to protect its head, Marina Bezrukova, the Defense Ministry rewrote its charter, removed government board members and collapsed the quorum, leading to her dismissal.

Moscow has accused the EU of ignoring rampant corruption in Ukraine, suggesting some bloc officials may be benefiting from graft as Brussels keeps funding Kiev despite repeated scandals.