The Untangling of Ukraine's Corruption Knot

The war has devastated the country, but it is also empowering the fighters (the people) to challenge the power of Ukraine's post-Soviet disease

Courtesy of Zigya

Many in the United States view Ukraine as a mini-America fighting off the genociding colonial empire. Instead of being the British in their thick, red coats and smart battlefield drill, it’s the barely-civilized hordes of raping and pillaging Russian civilian soldiers — the epitome of chaos, and all that is wrong with modern humans.

Ukrainians have demonstrated to the world through their courage and determination that they, too, aspire to live lives with meaning. Not wanting to be mere pawns whose fate is controlled by the sick perversions of demented cowards like Putin, Medvedev, and so many more of the Moscow-based sycophants, they fight in ways that Russians never could — or would.

They fight because a sense of “self,” expressed through the hints and shadows of a pulsating civil society, has formed since August 1992. Ukrainians, despite all of the failed “people’s revolutions” and the fits and starts the country has made to free itself from the cacoon of rot created by Soviet ineptitude and criminality, have managed to develop a voice in the corrupt crowd that regularly nudges the country off course. Like in many other post-Soviet Republics, the basement of the Ukrainian house is dank, dark, and stinks of the rot of stagnating rainwater.

No matter what Ukraine does, and Putin knows this better than any of the Western leaders reaching for rhetorical eloquence when they speak about supporting the Ukrainian struggle to break free from Moscow’s oppressive yoke, it is still a country whose societal foundation was built on the misdeveloped values of the Soviet system.

The Soviet Union thrived because it abused its people so thoroughly that it broke their spirit. They became malleable and accepting of the abuse the way victims often do. To compensate for the disrespect, most stole from the public space around them. They also stole from each other. The belief was that if I don’t have something, I will take it from not because I am trying to offend you but because the system offends all of us. Crime against each other was seldom personal; it was just a matter of “I took from you, and now you can take from someone else, Comrade.”

This flawed system of values prevailed to the end, and to be honest, in many parts of Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet Republics, it never ended. In Ukraine, however, accepting that such an approach to life might be wrong began to take hold. The eastern parts of Ukraine, the pro-Moscow regions, don’t want to be morally responsible for their actions. They don’t want a better, more transparent way of managing society — they want the smoke screen that Moscow’s rule permits. It permits everyone to continue to lie, cheat, steal, and then offer a prayer and be redeemed.

Every time Putin lights a candle in the Taliban Russian Orthodox Church, he reinforces this sentiment.

Ukrainians fighting for more

Vladimir Zelensky is not just fighting the Russian invaders but also trying to exorcise this Soviet evil from the Ukrainian soul.

Corruption has been the elephant in the room since the invasion — an unpopular subject in Washington since it risks undermining the American support that Ukraine desperately needs.

Ukraine is making progress, no small feat in the middle of a hot war. But it is still ranked the second most corrupt country in Europe, after Russia, according to Transparency International. Since the February 2022 Russian invasion, a host of characters — from arms dealers to suppliers of soldiers’ meals — has stood to reap big profits, creating vested interests in prolonging the conflict (Corruption Is an Existential Threat).

The oligarchs in Ukraine are as vile and self-serving as the ones in Russia. Sure, some of them might be out there pretending to be patriots, but at the same time, they are angling. They are seeking in the rubble new ways to tap into the billions of dollars of Western aid. No oligarch is supporting Zelensky or this war out of love for his homeland, and if Zelensky fight against Ukrainian corruption goes too far, they could remove him.

With defense officials being removed for corruption in Ukraine on a fairly regular basis, what these short-sighted traitors don’t realize — and that is what they are, in my view. If you are stealing from your country during this war with Putin, then you should be executed — the Ukrainian people, the 20,000 to 50,000 amputees, are the ones winning this war. Western aid is needed. The support of the oligarchs is required, but without the fight of the Ukrainian civilians, who have been victimized repeatedly by Ukraine’s addiction to corruption, this war would have been over 18 months ago.

How do we know that the Ukrainian people are now a potent force for democratizing their country and putting an end — finally — to the Soviet-era culture of corruption? Simple. Look at how the Ukrainians fight compared to the Russians. Look at how the Ukrainians have united to overcome odds stacked against them — and still are. The Russian people could have never come together in such a way without the threat of being murdered by their own government — as we saw with the meat waves that have proven successful in this war.

The Ukrainian people have been woken up. A voice can be heard echoing through the villages, the fields, and the tears of sobbing mothers and wives. We won’t let you — Russia, the corrupt Ukrainian officials, the revolving door of corrupt politicians, the vile and cowardly oligarchs who regard Ukraine’s long war as nothing but a business opportunity — do this to us again.

When the war in Ukraine finally ends, the money to rebuild the country will most likely dwarf anything we’ve seen in our lifetime. That’s when the real feeding frenzy will begin. Ukrainian institutions and watchdogs had better be ready (Corruption Is an Existential Threat).

It won’t be an easy process. People will be assassinated, imprisoned, tortured, and just disappear, but the whispers of a united, democracy-loving Ukraine will turn into steady din — and then a shout.

Ukraine will prevail, and all of the weaklings addicted to Moscow’s corruption will be jailed, ended, and overcome.