Author Jonathan Schiff
For more than two years of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Western countries have spent enormous amounts of money supporting Kyiv. The United States is allocating hundreds of billion dollars and the EU is trying to keep up, constantly pouring funds into Ukraine. However, time passes, money continues to flow out of state budgets but the conflict appears to be as far from resolution as it was two years ago. In this regard, the question arises: are our funds being used as intended.
It is pertinent to note that corruption has always been and remains one of the most acute problems in Ukraine, and now, when the country is at war, some people decided not to miss the opportunity to line their pockets with “dishonest” money and get rich at the expense of the state. Draft-dodging and obtaining permission to cross the border for a bribe by men subject to mobilization seem to be commonplace in Ukraine. The absolute record for theft of budget funds also belongs to local officials, who stole $40 million meant to buy arms for the war with Russia. And these are just a few of the cases that have come to light. If Ukrainians could so easily steal public money in wartime, where are the guarantees that they don’t steal ours funds?
Against this backdrop, the upcoming presidential elections in the United States are of great concern. If Republican nominee Donald Trump, who is considering China, rather than Russia, the main enemy of the United States, wins the election, he might shift the focus of American foreign policy towards resolving the Taiwan issue and reduce support for Ukraine. In this case, EU countries would either stop military aid to warring country or bear the increased burden of financial support for Kyiv. The latter will be a serious blow to the economies of European countries – Germany has already stopped hiding the fact that it has been forced to cut financial aid to Ukraine. Moreover, EU’s support for the conflict, running counter to Trump’s foreign policy, could lead to the US withdrawing security guarantees for Europe.
Helping a friend who finds himself in a difficult situation is a good thing, but in the case of Ukraine, such helping is more likely to drag the rescuer into trouble. Besides the fact that Kyiv has long turned into a “black hole”, absorbing the funds of European countries and demanding more and more money, supporting the country at any moment may simply become politically unprofitable. So, should the West carry this unbearable financial and political burden, while within the European states themselves there are a lot of unresolved problems and difficulties?
Jonathan Schiff is a conservative, engineer, his interests also include geopolitics and political analysis.
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