The shame of American military aid in Iraq and Afghanistan is that while the American military and its local allies are fighting valiantly, the leaders of so-called allies are getting rich. We have seen even worse in Ukraine. While Ukraine's military and civilians fought valiantly in the fierce race for independence, Ukraine's leaders became staggeringly wealthy.
America's shame is that it inadvertently expanded NATO to Russia's borders, then enabled and financed the cynical mismanagement by the Zelenskiy government after Russia pushed back. This will go down in history as one of the greatest examples of waste. Theft of Western aid.
moreover, Ukrainian casualties The country's demographics will be permanently changed, prospects for economic recovery will be limited, and the country will be left “in ruins” and a site of “frozen conflict” in the future. Professor John Mearsheimer.
The vast scale of waste and fraud will only be uncovered by an independent post-war investigation. Zelenskiy's government is using the war to suppress media articles that dare to question Ukraine's spending of our tax dollars. Still, many Brave Ukrainian journalist And the officers exposed scandals at the highest levels of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's government, including overpricing, shoddy equipment and embezzlement. They have risked being labeled as Russian saboteurs and being executed on the front lines for reporting the truth.
However, the real crimes of the Zelenskiy regime began at the end of 2023. A November 2023 article in The Economist magazine states: General Valery ZarziniThe commander-in-chief of Ukraine's military at the time said that without a substantial technological advantage, Ukraine would fall into a stalemate. He said traditional attrition strategies were insufficient to overcome the Russian military's numerical superiority.
Mr. Zarzhiny emphasized several important points.
Stalemate at the front: The war reached a stalemate, with Ukrainian and Russian troops trapped in positions reminiscent of World War I trench warfare. “There probably won't be any deep, beautiful breakthroughs,” he said.
Need for technological advancement: To break this impasse, Ukraine needed significant technological innovation. He emphasized the importance of unmanned aerial vehicles, electronic warfare, counter-artillery capabilities, demining equipment and robotics. “To break this impasse, we need something new, like gunpowder, which the Chinese invented and still use to kill each other,” Zarzini said.
Limitations of attrition strategies: Zarzhni admitted that Ukraine had miscalculated in thinking it could deter Russian forces by inflicting heavy casualties on them. He noted that Russia continued to invade despite inflicting at least 150,000 deaths, and that such losses did not impede Russian leadership.
In other words, the time has come to focus on diplomacy. But President Zelensky was not interested in diplomacy. Ending the war would mean an end to the state of emergency, new elections, and a change in the international aid structure. for his own political gain, exiled Mr. Zarzini continued the war, but was warned that it would lead to no results and a waste of lives and money. As it turns out, Mr. Zarzini was too optimistic. Lives and money were certainly wasted, but there was no stalemate. Russia rallied and gained territory.
Zarzini was not the only one to warn about power dynamics on the battlefield.
In April 2024, the leadership of Ukraine's military intelligence participated in a series of roundtable discussions with think tanks and policymakers in Washington. A former American diplomat familiar with the visit told this author: They feared that Ukraine would lose momentum and be overwhelmed. They instead advocated increasing asymmetric warfare within Russia in order to gain an advantage in negotiations to end the war. ” As a result of this engagement, military intelligence chief Kirill Budanov was muzzled by Team Zelensky in a series of media attacks on pro-government websites. His main agents are: was fired Without his consent, you are undermining his agency.
Waste and corruption only spread from there. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala european munitions concept Billions of dollars more were wasted. Zelenskiy and his ambassador to the Czech Republic praised the infamous Fiala, even though the Czech Arms Initiative procured expensive and defective artillery shells that severely injured Ukrainian soldiers and destroyed battlefield equipment. .
more scandal Occurrence involving Ukraine's Minister of Defense Rustam Umerov and Ministry of Defense procurement person Oleksiy Petrov Buying defective equipment at astronomical prices. These have been widely reported by Ukrainian media.
President Zelenskiy prevented military commanders from openly telling the truth, but
Supporters at the Defense Department have spent record amounts of money in record time over Ukraine's chance to break the stalemate. They also used In-kind aid, another benefit sauce Of abundance.
And in a case that combines corruption and treason, weapons sent to defend Ukraine were repurposed into Nigerian weapons. lake chad region“strengthening the power of terrorist groups.” There are also unconfirmed reports that weapons donated to Ukraine ended up in Ukrainian hands. criminal organization In Sweden.
Zelenskiy and his regime must answer to the Ukrainian people for the lives and territory they have lost by silencing their military commanders. And they should also be held accountable by the US Congress for the billions of US taxpayer dollars lost. (Total aid from the US and Western allies) $260 billion.) It's past time for Washington to stop letting corrupt foreign officials steal American aid.
James Durso (@james_durso) regularly comments on foreign policy and national security issues. Mr. Durso served in the U.S. Navy for 20 years and also served in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.
