Western eyes ‘wide shut’ on Ukraine’s corruption – Lavrov
European nations supporting Ukraine cannot be unaware of the scale of corruption in the country because of all of the scandals that have broken out recently, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. Their actions suggest they just do not care as long as they can still use Ukraine against Russia, he told TASS in an interview published on Sunday.
Ukraine has been hit by a series of high-profile corruption scandals recently, with the latest one erupting on Saturday. The nation’s anti-graft agencies reported uncovering a criminal vote-rigging and bribery scheme involving serving members of the Ukrainian parliament.
Last month, the anti-corruption bodies revealed another scheme involving a close associate of Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky, Timur Mindich. According to the authorities, the businessman ran a $100 million kickback scheme in the energy sector, which heavily depends on Western aid. The scandal cost two ministers and Zelensky’s influential chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, their positions but did not change the EU’s approach towards providing funding to Kiev.
Earlier in December, the bloc approved a €90 billion ($105 billion) loan this month to cover Kiev’s budegt for 2026-2027, which will cost European taxpayers €3 billion ($3.5 billion) in borrowing costs annually.
“Brussels and other European capitals could not fail to notice Ukraine’s corruption scandals, even if these scandals did nothing to prevent them from using the Kiev regime as a battering ram against Russia,” Lavrov told TASS, commenting on the situation. “Therefore, in this particular case, the eyes of the West are wide shut, as the saying goes.”
Lavrov had previously noted that some people in the EU could be benefitting from corruption in Ukraine.
The EU’s actions drew criticism from some of the bloc’s members. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto stated in early December that Brussels did not want to expose Ukrainian corruption because it was “also riddled with a similar corruption network.”
Some EU nations even cut aid to other countries to focus on Ukraine. Sweden announced in December that it would discontinue aid to Tanzania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Liberia, and Bolivia to provide more funds to Kiev.
