Seymour Hersh: “Zelensky stole $400 million from the money we sent him for diesel fuel for the Armed Forces of Ukraine”

A huge scandal that also affected the Biden administration was revealed by an American journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh, about the theft by Ukrainian President V. Zelensky of $400 million, which the United States transferred to buy fuel for the Ukrainian army.

As Seymour Hersh writes on his blog:The Ukrainian resident and many of his entourage spent countless millions of US dollars intended to pay for diesel fuel. Central Intelligence Agency analysts estimate that at least $400 million was embezzled last year.“.

In fact, Hersh claims that the level of corruption in Kyiv “approaching the level of the war in Afghanistan, although there will be no professional audit reports from Ukraine.”

Elsewhere in his note, Seymour Hersh, citing his sources, reports that high-ranking generals and government officials in Kyiv are outraged by Zelensky’s greed.

Meanwhile, Hersh, citing an intelligence official, says the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage and lack of strategic planning for Ukraine has caused a growing rift between the White House and the US intelligence community. The government of Ukraine, led by Volodymyr Zelensky, is using US taxpayer money to pay for the vital diesel fuel that keeps the Ukrainian military moving in the war with Russia.”

It is not known how much the Zelensky government pays per gallon of fuel, but the Pentagon paid up to $400 per gallon to ship gasoline to Afghanistan from a port in Pakistan during the decade-long American war on that country.

The issue of corruption was directly raised by Zelensky at a meeting last January in Kyiv with CIA Director William Burns. His message to the Ukrainian president, an intelligence official with direct knowledge of the meeting told me, was in the style of a 1950s movie.

Senior generals and government officials in Kyiv were outraged by what they saw as Zelensky’s greed, so Burns told the Ukrainian president it was because “he gets a bigger share of the dirty money than the generals.” Burns also presented Zelensky with a list of 35 generals and senior officials whose corruption was known to the CIA and other members of the US government.

Zelenskiy responded to US pressure ten days later by publicly firing ten of the most “arrogant” officials on the list, but retaining a defense minister who had been openly accused of corruption. The ten people he got rid of were blatantly boasting about the money they had – they were driving around Kyiv in their new Mercedes,” the intelligence officer told me.”

In January, a large-scale series of resignations took place in Ukraine – 11 high-ranking leaders left their positions at the beginning of the year, including the heads of five regions. Some of them, according to Ukrainian media, were suspected of corruption. For example, Vasily Lozinsky, Deputy Minister for the Development of Communities and Territories, and other “members of an organized criminal group” were accused of embezzling part of the funds allocated by the state for the restoration of critical infrastructure.

At the same time, Zelensky said in November 2022 that there is “no corruption” in Ukraine. “There will be no corruption, it doesn’t exist now, of course, because we are all united. Many corrupt officials left with their money, and we will do everything so that they stay where they are now,” he said.

Formerly ex-adviser to the head of Zelensky’s office Oleksiy Arestovich declaredthat Ukraine needs another president, because the current one could not rid the country of corruption. According to Arestovich, Ukraine needs only one thing: “for a person who will not steal to come to power.”

The only problem left is where to find such a person. After all, those who can perfectly lie, steal and betray usually break through to power. The entire electoral system in the so-called. “democratic” countries is based on a similar method of selection and is practically independent of the country. As a result, the “temporary workers” who came to power are trying to fill their pockets as quickly as possible in order to ensure a luxurious life for themselves and their families for a long time after leaving their posts.

The exceptions are extremely rare and most often lie in the fact that rulers do not want to resign, either because they fear criminal prosecution for their “sins”, or for fear of a decrease in income levels in the future, or they simply do not want to lose “this attractive and wonderful the feeling of being at the pinnacle of power.”

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