Corruption kills. Why does Zelenskyy have to purge his environment quickly?

Sometimes these claims are indeed biased and based more on fear for their own underpants. However, the scandalous case of the disabled prosecutors and the millionaires from the Medical Expert Commission give cynics tired of the Ukrainian war additional trump cards.

Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin resigned, and in his letter of resignation, he announced the number of disabled prosecutors in Khmelnytsky region alone - 61 people.

This figure will definitely impress our Western partners, who regularly provide substantial tranches to the Ukrainian budget for pension payments and social assistance.

For a moment, every second hryvnia in our budget is already from our allies. Our allies give us at least 200 billion for pensions - this is money from the IMF, the US, Japan, and Norway - all those who know how to keep accounts.

They are already surprised by the way we are redistributing part of their aid into the pockets of prosecutors. Therefore, we should not be surprised when Donald Trump mentions this case in vivid colours at his final election rallies in front of the Rednecks and has nothing to beat him with.

The second point. The international community is somewhat tired of the Ukrainian war, and more and more often they want to put us at the table with the Kremlin so that Ukrainians do not bore their infantilism with their indomitability. Therefore, there are fewer and fewer arguments why we should support Ukraine with weapons and money at the proper level - especially if we ban trips to prestigious platforms for the opposition, the military and independent media.

There are many reasons for the cooling towards Kyiv, including the illusory impression that it is still possible to reach an agreement with Russia, that Putin is about to die, and an outright unwillingness to die instead of Ukrainians in a war that has long gone beyond a neighbourly conflict over the territories and historical heritage of Russia. And the official acknowledgement that Zelenskyy no longer holds any moral authority in the West.

Prosecutors' life hacks on how to make money during the war on fake disabilities will have their own long-term negative impact.

It is no secret that Andriy Kostin, as Prosecutor General, was the main speaker on Russia's war crimes. Let's turn a blind eye to the fact that this gentleman was included in the party list of the Servants of the People, and then in a prestigious position, because of his long-standing acquaintance with the head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak.

Kostin commented a lot on collaborators, mass graves in Bucha and Izium, and thousands of stolen children. We can sadly state that the fake disabilities of the prosecutors will make us doubt all these theses. Especially if some scandalous security officials were involved in collecting evidence of the same crimes committed by the Russians.

Likewise, any appeals to Western partners from the Commissioner for Sanctions Policy Vladyslav Vlasyuk will be questioned. After all, a person whose father has a ‘bright’ declaration but is an ordinary doctor at the Medical Expertise Centre in Vinnytsia cannot slap the US and Germany. Can an official who has his nose in the game also teach our allies about business integrity?

And finally, about the SBU, which has now gone to visit numerous heads of the Medical Expertise Centres. The latest news about the Mykolaiv official says in black and white that the corrupt official's favourite son had obtained a Russian passport in Odesa at the Russian Consulate General a few weeks before the full-scale invasion. Where was the SBU, and how many other such passports were purchased by those who hoped that Russia would soon be here? Finally, why didn't our special services ask what the enemy consulate general was doing in Odesa, which Putin mentions much more often than Alina Kabaeva.

To be honest, it was not Zelenskyy who personally issued those fake disabilities, and it was definitely not him who issued Russian passports. However, it was his blind faith in a handful of powerful managers and the granting of uncharacteristic powers to them that allowed the mess to grow like weeds. Now, every dubious story labels the president a ‘corrupt official’, so I don't envy him.

In this war, we are all sailing in the same boat - the heroes and those who use the war as an opportunity to rise from the mud to become princes. However, even so, we artificially limit our manoeuvres, allowing our enemies and foes to say that we are nothing but nobodies who are interested in other people's dollars.

While we are being eaten from the inside by corruption scandals, the Russians are intensifying what they do best - playing propaganda and brainwashing their Western partners.

In unison with the new batch of Ukrainian rats, there was a very interesting news story about how the so-called Russian opposition bought a house near the White House.

Three flags are planned to be hung in front of this new spot of ‘good Russians’, which smells like a new residence of the Russian special services. The first is the white, blue and white flag, which has been used by some Russian liberals since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. Then there are the EU flag and the NATO flag, as the ideologues believe that these are ‘Russia's future partners after liberation from the Putin regime’. This will obviously be a sticky flytrap for naive Western authorities. They say that Russia is changing, it is also the Western world - let's forget everything and forgive.

The idea is that this hole of liberalism will host regular events of the Russian opposition - seminars, discussions, fundraisers, meetings with American politicians.  And the first public event will be a ‘debate between Democrats and Republicans on the new administration's policy towards the war in Ukraine’.

Thus, the occupying country is imposing its agenda on the United States regarding the war in Ukraine. And no, it is not telling its opposition how Russia will withdraw its troops from Ukraine and how much reparations should be paid for the destroyed cities.

While the rust of corruption is eating away at Ukrainian prosecutors and Bankova's sanctions specialists, the Russians are aiming to sell themselves to the West as the chief arbiter of Eastern Europe once again.

There will be no morality. I just want to wish Zelenskyy to understand that the corruption of his friends and inner circle is a threat to everyone. And finally, we need to let out quality voices abroad in order not to lose the battle for what will happen here - ruin or renaissance.

Specially for Espreso

About the author: Maryna Danyliuk-Yarmolaieva, journalist

The editors do not always share the opinions expressed by the authors of blogs.