{"id":7136,"date":"2023-01-24T19:04:57","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T19:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/?p=7136"},"modified":"2023-01-25T06:18:47","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T06:18:47","slug":"ukraine-rocked-by-corruption-scandal-wave-of-top-officials-resign-sports-cars-mansions-luxury-vacations-as-people-suffered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/?p=7136","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine Rocked By Corruption Scandal, Wave Of Top Officials Resign: Sports Cars, Mansions &#038; Luxury Vacations As People Suffered"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><iframe class=\"rumble\" src=\"https:\/\/rumble.com\/embed\/v24emh6\/?pub=24ns9\" allowfullscreen=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p>Ukraine Rocked By Corruption Scandal, Wave Of Top Officials Resign: Sports Cars, Mansions &amp; Luxury Vacations As People Suffered<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p><strong>The Ukrainian government on Tuesday confirmed the resignation of multiple high ranking officials amid large-scale corruption allegations, in what\u2019s being called the&nbsp;biggest mass resignation and graft scandal since the Russian invasion began.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some dozen officials have quit their posts after a huge political shake-up over allegations and probes into cases ranging from bribery, to mismanagement of aid funds for purchasing food, to embezzlement, to&nbsp;<strong>driving expensive cars<\/strong>&nbsp;while common people suffer under wartime conditions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A top presidential adviser and four deputy ministers \u2013 among these two defense officials<\/strong>, along with five regional governors were forced out of their posts. And among the regional governors to step down included officials overseeing regions which have seen intense fighting, including the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, where Russian forces have lately reported gains.<\/p>\n<p>In reference to the announcement by a senior government official, Oleg Nemchinov, international reports detail the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-europe-64383388\">following list<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Deputy Prosecutor General Oleskiy Symonenko<\/li>\n<li>Deputy Minister for Development of Communities and Territories Ivan Lukeryu<\/li>\n<li>Deputy Minister for Development of Communities and Territories Vyacheslav Negoda<\/li>\n<li>Deputy Minister for Social Policy Vitaliy Muzychenk<\/li>\n<li>And the regional governors of Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Sumy and Kherson<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.themoscowtimes.com\/2023\/01\/24\/several-top-ukraine-officials-quit-amid-corruption-claims-a80025\">separately<\/a>, \u201cthe defense ministry had earlier announced the resignation of deputy minister Vyacheslav Shapovalov,&nbsp;<strong>who was in charge of the army\u2019s logistical support<\/strong>, on the heels of accusations it was signing food contracts at inflated prices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In this case regarding the food contracts,&nbsp;Shapovalov is accused of signing a deal with an unknown, shady firm. In his role as deputy defense minister, his is the most notable and visible resignation. Crucially he would have had no small part in&nbsp;<strong>overseeing the billions of dollars flowing from the pockets of US and European taxpayers<\/strong>&nbsp;as authorized defense aid.<\/p>\n<p>He purchased military rations at inflated prices in what appears a scheme to line the pockets of contractors, and potentially involving kickbacks to himself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>While the defense ministry is still trying to downplay it as a \u201ctechnical error\u201d \u2013<em>&nbsp;Politico<\/em>&nbsp;reviews of the details to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/ukraine-deputy-defense-minister-vyacheslav-shapovalov-resign-corruption-war-zelenskyy\/\">the scandal<\/a>:&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p><em>An expos\u00e9 from the Ukrainian news website&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/zn.ua\/eng\/paper-pushers-from-the-mod-syphon-off-money-on-food-for-the-armed-forces-more-than-during-peaceful-life-.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ZN.UA<\/a>&nbsp;revealed last week that the defense ministry purchased overpriced food supplies for its troops. For instance, the ministry bought eggs at 17 hryvnias per piece, while the average price of an egg in Kyiv is around 7 hryvnias. According to ZN.UA, a contract for food procurement for soldiers in 2023 amounted to 13.16 billion hryvnias (\u20ac328 million).<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is two to three times higher than current rates for such food items, reports say. Shapovalov\u2019s resignation letter indicated he\u2019s stepping down so as&nbsp;\u201cnot to pose&nbsp;<strong>a threat to the stable supply of the Armed Forces of Ukraine<\/strong>&nbsp;as a result of a campaign of accusations related to the purchase of food services.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/yahoohl1.png?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"><\/figure>\n<p>There\u2019s also deputy head of the Zelensky administration Kyrylo Tymoshenko, who stands accused of&nbsp;<strong>living a lavish wartime lifestyle<\/strong>. Many current mainstream media reports on Tuesday are burying some of the key verified details. For example, BBC writes simply that&nbsp;<em><strong>\u201cTymoshenko was implicated in several scandals during his tenure,&nbsp;<\/strong>including in October last year when he was accused of&nbsp;<strong>using a car donated to Ukraine for humanitarian purposes<\/strong>.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>But starting in early December local Ukrainian outlets, angered at the posh lifestyle of Ukrainian leaders at a moment tens of millions are without power amid Russian aerial bombardment of the nation\u2019s power grid, began confirming that Tymoshenko drove high-end sports cars in and out of the capital, to and from mansions which&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/video\/zelenskyy-office-official-drives-porsche-124500571.html\">typically range in cost from<\/a>&nbsp;<strong>$10,000 to $25,000 per month<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Below are photos published by&nbsp;The New Voice of Ukraine, republished in Yahoo News, in early December of last year, showing&nbsp;Tymoshenko frequently behind the wheel of a shiny new&nbsp;Porsche Taycan\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p>One outlet published a photo series entitled&nbsp;<em>Not the \u201cmartial law\u201d of Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine\u2019s Office of the President<\/em><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/ukrmansion1.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"><\/figure>\n<p><strong>US taxpayer dollars at work in Ukraine\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/ukrmansion2.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"><\/figure>\n<p>As another example of Western MSM seeking to downplay or soften this latest wave of graft-related forced resignations, the AFP writes, \u201cUkraine has long suffered endemic corruption, including among the political elite, but efforts to stamp out graft have been overshadowed by Moscow\u2019s full-scale war that began in February.\u201d And yet officials like&nbsp;Tymoshenko were spotted around Kiev and oligarchs\u2019 neighborhoods driving luxury sports cars for months throughout the war.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, there\u2019s this laughable and embarrassing line out of the AFP report: \u201cKyiv\u2019s Western allies,&nbsp;<strong>who have allocated billions of dollars in financial and military support, have been pushing for anti-corruption reforms for years<\/strong>, sometimes as a precondition for aid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>From a government supposedly \u201cpushing anti-corruption reforms for years\u201d to over $100 billion in US defense and foreign aid being pledged to Kiev\u2019s coffers over the past year\u2026 to now this from within the heart of the Zelensky administration:<\/p>\n<p>It doesn\u2019t stop at posh and expensive cars, but the controversy has even extended to luxury vacations abroad as Ukrainians suffer the deprivations of war at home. \u201cThe departure of Symonenko, a deputy prosecutor general, comes after media reports that he&nbsp;<strong>spent a holiday in Spain this winter<\/strong>, reportedly using a car belonging to a Ukrainian businessman.\u201d The government has as a result now reportedly&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/ukraine-restricts-international-travel-senior-043200314.html\">barred top officials<\/a>&nbsp;from vacationing abroad as a result of the scandal.<\/p>\n<p>Just prior to the wave of resignations, another official named Vasyl Lozynskiy was accused of&nbsp;<strong>receiving bribes to \u201cfacilitate\u201d the purchase of generators<\/strong>&nbsp;at greatly hiked-up prices. Crucially, Lozynskiy as Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Communities Development would have also been directly involved in overseeing how billions of dollars in Western humanitarian and infrastructure assistance gets doled out.<\/p>\n<p>Commenting on this, mainstream media is now&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/news\/2015\/feb\/04\/welcome-to-the-most-corrupt-nation-in-europe-ukraine\">belatedly acknowledging a fact that\u2019s long been well-known<\/a>, but which would get a person \u2018canceled\u2019 in public discourse if they dared pointed it out:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p><em>\u201cTransparency International ranked Ukraine&nbsp;<strong>122 out of 180 in its corruption ranking for 2021<\/strong>,\u201d the AFP now writes (<strong>the second most corrupt in Europe,<\/strong>&nbsp;with Russia the most at 136.)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/2023-01-24_08-17-51.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"><\/figure>\n<p>And&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/defense-minister-reznikov-ukraine-corruption-probe-war-russia-zelenskyy\/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=Twitter\">now<\/a>&nbsp;Ukraine\u2019s Defense Minister&nbsp;<strong>Oleksii Reznikov is under scrutiny<\/strong>&nbsp;related to the growing probe and scandal. Meanwhile, as news of the widening scandal hits world headlines\u2026<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>via Infowars<\/p>\n<p>January 24, 2023 at 02:01PM<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ukraine Rocked By Corruption Scandal, Wave Of Top Officials Resign: Sports Cars, Mansions &amp; Luxury&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,229,279],"tags":[103],"class_list":["post-7136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-stories","category-globalism","category-pm-headline","tag-sbn"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Screen-Shot-2023-01-24-at-2.01.51-PM.png?fit=1584%2C882&ssl=1",1584,882,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Screen-Shot-2023-01-24-at-2.01.51-PM.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Screen-Shot-2023-01-24-at-2.01.51-PM.png?fit=300%2C167&ssl=1",300,167,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Screen-Shot-2023-01-24-at-2.01.51-PM.png?fit=640%2C357&ssl=1",640,357,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Screen-Shot-2023-01-24-at-2.01.51-PM.png?fit=640%2C356&ssl=1",640,356,true],"rpg_gallery_admin_thumb":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Screen-Shot-2023-01-24-at-2.01.51-PM.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"rpg_gallery_thumb":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Screen-Shot-2023-01-24-at-2.01.51-PM.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Screen-Shot-2023-01-24-at-2.01.51-PM.png?fit=1536%2C855&ssl=1",1536,855,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Screen-Shot-2023-01-24-at-2.01.51-PM.png?fit=1584%2C882&ssl=1",1584,882,true],"newsphere-slider-full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Screen-Shot-2023-01-24-at-2.01.51-PM.png?resize=1280%2C720&ssl=1",1280,720,true],"newsphere-featured":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Screen-Shot-2023-01-24-at-2.01.51-PM.png?fit=1024%2C570&ssl=1",1024,570,true],"newsphere-medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Screen-Shot-2023-01-24-at-2.01.51-PM.png?resize=720%2C380&ssl=1",720,380,true]},"author_info":{"info":["Peter Santilli"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/?cat=8\" rel=\"category\">Featured Stories<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/?cat=229\" rel=\"category\">Globalism<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/?cat=279\" rel=\"category\">PM Headline<\/a>","tag_info":"PM Headline","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Screen-Shot-2023-01-24-at-2.01.51-PM.png?fit=1584%2C882&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/plD2r-1R6","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7136"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7141,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7136\/revisions\/7141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}