Authored by Philip Wegmann via RealClear Wire,
During an unannounced trip to Ukraine earlier this month, Senator Angus King sat down across from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and discussed whether or not he should remain silent.
The independent senator from Maine had this idea go through his head: “Have I got the courage to say this?” RealClearPolitics said that King, who serves on both the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee, stated that he did not wish to cause “an issue.” However, in that tricky diplomatic situation, when there was a great deal at stake, direct advice was required: “I took a big breath and said, ‘Mr. President, a scandal would really screw this thing up.'” a scandal would really ruin this thing up.
The United States of America, with Vice President Joe Biden at the helm, has successfully galvanized Western nations behind Ukraine’s efforts to repel Russian aggressors. Although it is consistent, neither the economic nor the military assistance is guaranteed. The King cautioned that any waste of money or materials would put the vital supply route to Kyiv in jeopardy. The message was obtained successfully. “He understood it immediately,” the senator is quoted as saying about the constituent.
Earlier this week, Zelensky dismissed numerous senior Ukrainian officials from their roles, apparently over charges of corruption and as a public display to the West that Kyiv won’t accept graft. Zelensky’s actions were taken as a public demonstration that Kyiv won’t tolerate bribery. This action comes as Republicans in the House of Representatives have pledged to increase their monitoring of the ways in which the tens of billions of dollars in economic and military aid have been used and spent.
The White House is not showing any signs of concern. They have stated that the problem is taken seriously by them. John Kirby, the spokesperson for Vice President Joe Biden’s national security office, stated on Wednesday that neither military nor financial help “have fallen prey to any type of corruption in Ukraine.” According to Kirby, they just haven’t seen any evidence of wrongdoing up to this point.
When questioned by RCP to confirm that the administration had not yet uncovered any earlier instances of misuse of equipment or misappropriation of monies from the United States, Kirby responded “Correct” without adding any qualifications to his statement. King shared their awe and admiration.
The senator claimed that while he was in Ukraine, he observed how Zelensky’s team uses independent auditors to keep track of monetary transactions in addition to everything else “down to the individual spare part.”
Republicans are more skeptical and already making good on House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s warning before the midterms that the House wouldn’t be sending Ukraine “a blank check.” The Biden administration has already provided approximately $27.5 billion in military assistance as well as nearly $10 billion in humanitarian aid and more than $15 billion in financial support.
Rep. James Comer, the Kentucky Republican now chairing the House Oversight Committee, will soon comb through those numbers to identify “waste or misuse.”
“With any massive government spending comes the opportunity for waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. Ukraine aid is no different,” Comer told RCP before adding that Congress owes it “to the taxpayer” to “conduct oversight over the tens of billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars sent overseas.”
Taxpayer support for Ukraine remains bipartisan – for now. The last aid package passed the Senate 88-11 and the House 368-57 in May, but deep skepticism remains on the right. Comparisons of Zelensky to Winston Churchill and Ukraine to Great Britain during the Second World War grate on fiscal conservatives like Ted Galen Carpenter of the CATO institute.
“The notion that Ukraine was such an appealing democratic model in Eastern Europe that the country’s mere existence terrified Putin may be a comforting myth to U.S. politicians and pundits, but it is a myth. Ukraine is far from being a democratic capitalist model and an irresistible magnet for Russia’s groaning masses,” Carpenter wrote in the American Conservative, before noting how the former Eastern Bloc country regularly ranks toward the bottom of international corruption indexes.
Systemic corruption was an animating principle of Zelensky’s political career long before the Russian invasion when he rose from comedian to president. Mykhailo Podolyak, a close advisor to the Ukrainian leader, wrote on Twitter after the recent firings that the moves “testify to the key priorities of the state” and how “everyone should understand their responsibility.” The Biden administration echoed that message on Capitol Hill during testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Thursday.
Victoria Nuland, undersecretary of state for political affairs, told lawmakers that if anything the staffing change in Kyiv “sends a very strong signal to others who would try to rip off this war effort, and is important for the future of Ukraine.”
The White House is preparing for more of that kind of oversight from Congress in the weeks and months ahead, and while the administration reports that Ukraine earns high marks in rooting out corruption, Kirby noted that corruption remains an ever-present danger in all conflicts.
“You can’t forget that,” he said. “I mean, it’s war.” To guard against misuse, he added, the administration has redoubled its efforts via officials at the U.S. embassy there “to work with the Ukrainians on accountability.”
Ukraine’s first priority is expelling the Russians. They have already managed to blunt the advance, and the Zelensky administration welcomed news that Biden was readying to ship 31 Abrams Battle Tanks to the country, armor that’s expected to help turn the tide come spring.
King told RCP that the new hardware “will make a real difference for the Ukrainians” and said that the shipment was both “necessary” and “consistent” with previous aid packages. The United States first rushed Javelin and Stinger missile systems to the country during the early days of conflict. “The priority at the time was to stop the Russian incursion toward Kyiv,” he explained before noting how the battle has devolved into a kind of trench warfare. “Now we are in a different kind of war.”
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