$40M LAUNDERED From Ukrainian War Aid, Zelensky Admits: Rising Reacts

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Ukraine Security Services reports that five people have been charged and one person detained for embezzling nearly $40 million intended to buy arms to support the war effort against the Russians security officials say that the investigation into the alleged fraud dates back to August 2022 when officials signed a contract for artillery shells

Worth $ 39.6 million within arms firm after receiving payment the company employees were supposed to transfer the funds to a foreign arms manufacturer which would then deliver the ammo to Ukraine instead the money made its way to various accounts around Ukraine and the Balkans Ukraine’s prosecutor General

Says that the funds have since been seized and will be returned to the country’s defense budget meanwhile there may have been a shake up in Ukraine’s military Authority reports indicate Ukraine’s commander-in Chief Valeri julin ly may have been out of a job as of yesterday no official dismissal

Notice has been released yet but independent Ukrainian media confirmed that he had been fired keeve has denied that dismissal took place Z served as commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces since July of 2021 the reports emerged in November of 2023 that there were disagreements between zalinsky and xaluan Ukrainian media

Outlet ukra Uka provada later reported that zalinski was allegedly by asking jalu in communication with some military commanders so it’s not clear if he was actually dismissed here there were Ukrainian reports that he was being dismissed uh he’s a very popular military official in Ukraine um the there have been hints of tension

Between him and zalinski uh my understanding is he is perceived as a little bit more forthright and cleare eyed about their odds of winning the war he made some comments several months ago um likening the situation they’re in with Russia to World War I where it’s stalemate and

There’s where he he said basically there’s not going to be some sudden breakthrough where we drive the Russians out of the country he says the the casualties Russia was willing to undertake of its own forces in order to achieve this is staggering and you know

If they had any I mean he was condemning it obviously said if they had any decency they would withdraw but that from his perspective they don’t and they’re going to fight on and thus they’re in a kind of stalemate situ a stalemate but one in which Russia

Controls part of Ukraine and uh that you know that is not the note that zilinski ever sounds that it’s hopeless or I he you know he increasingly sounds like you’re the West is abandoning us you’re giving up on us you have to give us more funding so we can fight this battle for

You this is a battle for the soul of Western culture and liberal values Etc um kind of a different tone so if he was let go that would have been something it’s possible he was let go and the blowback caused them to reconsider um again these are reports from Ukrainian

Uh media sources not true what the actual truth of the matter is well it it obviously is a very different kind of uh climate than it was a year ago with USA largely being halted uh it’s been connected to this package that would include uh funds for the Border uh which

Mike Johnson has obstructed Republican said they won’t pass there’s some debate as to whether or not the deal is actually insufficient or whether or not there are political implications political benefits to being able to argue that Joe Biden is not doing anything about the border and therefore obstructing it until after the election

Um is potentially what the Republicans are planning to do there’s been reporting that indicates that’s exactly what is the plan but that obviously implicates Ukraine funding Democrats have largely been willing to give Democrat uh give Republicans everything they want On the Border because they’re so desperate to pass Ukraine Aid and

Republicans still aren’t um taking them up on it so that also shines an interesting light on this corruption story uh that we LED with now uh the guardian reported that even though uh Ukraine is known as one of the most uh corrupt countries in the world that

Because of the nature of the war and the sacrifice that so many ukrainians have given of life and limb in the context of fighting this war there is less tolerance social for corruption there was uh previously people are more in a kind of a unified spirit in the country

Um which makes this I think that much more ging five people uh arrested uh in relation to this millions of dollars that were supposed to be spent on artillery artillery which was uh apparently some of which was diverted to a personal account some of whom chose to

Flat the country they all stand to get up to 12 years in prison if they are convicted of this crime there’s a story like this in Inspire confidence in Americans who are looking at the Democratic largely bipartisan but establishment Democratic efforts to pass more funding for Ukraine when you see

That these kinds of things are happening frankly money being U misspent or misappropriated in this way does not surprise me in the least in fact I’d be shocked to learn it wasn’t happening I we know from our own our own military loses you know the Pentagon fails its

Budget every year fails its audit does loses um Millions perhaps billions of dollars spent in uh in Afghanistan and Iraq and other places year after year so if we can’t account for where all the money went Ukraine which has uh as you noted less of a history of of social

Institutional trust more issues with corruption is more of a developing Nation um in the midst of a war effort um it it is not surprising at all to me that this is occurring but it should probably raise add addition questions about what we are doing here and what

Our strategy is and why we would give them even more money given that their top military commander thought six or eight months ago that they were basically this is this was as far as they were going to get and uh it it needs to be uh diplomatic forces just

Need to take over even if that hurts a little bit for Ukraine to your point by the way uh responsible State craft published a piece at the very end of last year saying the Pentagon can’t account for 63% of nearly 4 trillion dollars in assets uh the dod regularly buys Parts

And Equipment it doesn’t need because it can’t keep tracks of the Parts and Equipment it already owns that’s it’s an absolute dis disaster and I think there should be a much more fullsome conversation happening domestically about cutting cuts to military spending which never seem to be on the chopping

Block uh from the so-called fiscally conservative Republicans in the same way that let’s say um school lunches have been very much on the the agenda not this guy I would chop chop chop not just a nice Sal for the kids lunch I would Chom that military budget yeah we we

Know but the reality is the Republican party has been very aggressive on cutting these domestic spending programs without similarly being invested in in cutting um military spinning despite the obvious waste to here but this is a little bit of a different story from the one that was being told in Ukraine this

Is a story I I’m not saying it’s better or worse this story in specific individuals with malice stealing whereas ours is I mean again I’m not like writing it off accounting I don’t know which is worse to be honest I it’s the kind of errors that people go you know

The IRS can come after you for for making with your own finances all the time but when the government does it well oops sure but I also this a lot of this has got to be you know can the Pentagon really not account for it or is

It doing things that it doesn’t want to be accountable for so the story of the Three troops that have uh been killed in Jordan is also a story about what is this base where is this base actually there’s some dispute about where where it is because it’s on a a borderline

Between countries what is happening there why are there you know 8,000 military bases scattered across the world that most of us are not aware of and is that really what we’re talking about when we say that there 63% of a $4 trillion dollar budget that’s unaccountable yeah indeed we will

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