Governmental shake-ups in Ukraine are raising questions about just what is happening behind the scenes in the country where the United States and other Western powers are spending so much money.
During one of his nightly addresses last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a number of changes to personnel, a signal that conflicts have arisen within the government even as the country continues to be embroiled in a war with Russia. The changes also suggest that Zelensky wants to prove to his allies that he is taking corruption allegations seriously.
What was notable is that the list of resignations went beyond top-level officials like Kirill Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine — they also included governors from several front-line regions.
On the same day that Tymoshenko submitted his resignation, he was joined by Deputy Defense Minister Vyacheslav Shapovalov and Deputy Prosecutor General Alexey Symonenko.
Meanwhile, the regional heads who were forced out of their positions were Valentin Reznichenko, governor of Dnepropetrovsk; Alexander Starukh, governor of Zaporozhye; Yaroslav Yanushevich, governor of Kherson; and Dmitry Zhivitsky, governor of Sumy. The fact that these regions are close to the Russian border is a clue that a new phase of the conflict is soon to begin.
There is also word on the ground from local media that the resignations may reach into other senior offices, such as that of Prime Minister Denis Shmigal.
These changes followed the news of corruption charges at high levels of the Ukrainian government — news that has resulted in discussions of reform in the president’s office as well as within certain law enforcement entities in the country.
Shapovalov resigned after he was accused of buying food for the military at allegedly inflated prices — a scandal that also implicates Minister of Defense Alexei Reznikov. However, the profile committee of Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has thus far decided to leave Reznikov in his post.
There’s also the case of Vasiliy Lozinsky, deputy minister for the Development of Communities, Territories, and Infrastructure. A protege of Shmigal, Lozinsky was detained in a raid organized by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU). Relatedly, Ivan Lukerya, a colleague of Lozinsky’s, has resigned.
And that’s just one of the many scandals that has rocked war-torn Ukraine in recent days. In another, Pavel Khalimon, a member of parliament who stands accused of purchasing a $273,000 estate in the middle of the conflict, is soon to be ejected from his role as head of the President’s Servant of the People party in the Verkhovna Rada.
Some see an agenda behind the anti-corruption campaign and sweeping resignations. The Russia-sympathetic side of the aisle sees an effort by Western powers to take power away from Zelensky and consolidate it in their own hands — a theory articulated at the Russian news outlet RT:
The anti-graft stories are being driven by media outlets connected with Ukraine’s Western partners and [former President Pyotr] Poroshenko, who has become Zelensky’s main competitor, since the latter had opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk jailed. For example, on January 23, a number of pro-Western journalists launched a direct attack on Andrey Yermak – the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine and a key player in the system.
…There are suggestions that Washington and its allies want to limit Zelensky’s power. Western media occasionally expresses dissatisfaction with his dominant position in domestic politics, and it follows that, as the Ukrainian outlet ‘Strana.ua’ [banned by Zelenksy] claims, limiting Zelensky thus demonstrates that the US and EU intend to retain control over how the multibillion-dollar aid that goes to Ukraine (presently, about 50% of the national budget) is spent. Under such circumstances, the Kiev authorities would be forced to respond to accusations of corruption under pressure from the West.
The outlet also notes that it was the U.S. that pressed the Office of the President of Ukraine to fill the NABU director post.
For his part, Zelensky has axed several members of his team. This includes Timoshenko, who is a suspect of several NABU corruption cases and is accused of using for personal transportation an American SUV that General Motors donated for humanitarian missions to rescue civilians from combat zones.
The inner political turmoil within Ukraine takes place as the West and Russia move further along a collision course to war. The recent commitment by President Biden to send M1 Abrams tanks, along with NATO ally Germany’s Leopard 2 tanks, into Ukraine to bolster their defenses against Russia’s invasion of the country has led to fears of global escalation of the conflict.
In addition to the tanks, the U.S. and allied countries have already sent thousands of armored vehicles, along with ammunition and anti-ship and air-defense systems, to assist in Ukraine’s defense.
Croatian President Zoran Milanovic is among those who are criticizing the escalatory politics.
“I am against sending any lethal weapons there,” Milanovic told reporters. “It’s only prolonging the war. What’s the goal? Carving up Russia? Regime change? They’re talking about partitioning Russia. This is madness.”
He added: “This is deeply immoral, what we’re doing, the collective West. German tanks will just unite the Russians, and China. My goal is to distance ourselves [Croatia] from it, to not be circus dogs. Any kind of participation in this is deadly dangerous.”
The Washington military-industrial complex and its counterparts across the Atlantic are playing a dangerous game. And if their gamble explodes into a full-scale global conflict, it is the people — not the globalist decision-makers — who will suffer the most.
