Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko announced late afternoon on Wednesday that Kyiv’s justice and energy ministers had resigned amid a sweeping corruption scandal, allegedly involving the laundering of as much as $100 million (€86.4 million).
Less than a day later, Svyrydenko took to social media again to say that “Ukraine has just received €5.9 billion from the European Union,” and thanked Brussels officials “for their leadership and unwavering support.” Ukrainian Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal also urged the EU to “take the next historic step—a political decision to launch the Reparations Loan.”
Ukraine has just received €5.9 billion from the European Union – €4.1 billion under the ERA Loans and €1.8 billion through the Ukraine Facility.
The €4.1 billion represents the final tranche of the EU’s €18 billion ERA programme, financed by the profits of immobilised…
Not for the first time, the bloc’s leadership is refusing to listen to Budapest on the approach to Kyiv, and while—as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán says—“the golden illusion of Ukraine is falling apart,” Brussels is yet to wake up to reality.
Orbán said on Thursday morning that emerging reports of corruption have “exposed” a “wartime mafia network with countless ties to President Volodymyr Zelensky,” adding: “It’s high time Brussels finally understood where their money is really going.”
This is the chaos into which the Brusselian elite want to pour European taxpayers’ money, where whatever isn’t shot off on the front lines ends up in the pockets of the war mafia. Madness.
The golden illusion of Ukraine is falling apart. A wartime mafia network with countless ties to President @ZelenskyyUa has been exposed. The energy minister has already resigned, and the main suspect has fled the country.
This view is shared by Germany’s Alice Weidel, co-leader of the AfD, among others.
Hungary’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, also warned that “corruption is out of control in Ukraine, so it’s no surprise that no one has ever seen a clear accounting of how the EU funds were actually spent.”
For years now, the functioning of the Ukrainian state has been financed with the money of European citizens. Meanwhile, corruption is out of control in Ukraine, so it’s no surprise that no one has ever seen a clear accounting of how the EU funds were actually spent.
Their comments currently relate only to the financing of Ukraine, but also lend weight to their arguments against the country’s accession to the EU.
Failing to take the criticism seriously, a Ukraine government spokesman responded by posting an AI-generated image of Orbán and suggested that Hungary, not Kyiv, is the capital with a corruption problem. Actually, some Western media claim the scandal is so bad it could eventually bring Zelensky down.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
