A classified internal strategy document has revealed that senior officials in the State Department are alarmed that “perceptions of high-level corruption” could “undermine the Ukrainian public’s and foreign leaders’ confidence in the war-time government.”
A confidential version of the “Integrated Country Strategy” document crafted by the State Department, first obtained by Politico, confirms that senior members of the Biden administration are prioritizing anti-graft measures in a bid to preserve the wartime coalition backing Ukraine. Forthcoming support to the embattled European nation could even be conditioned on implementing “reforms to tackle corruption and make Ukraine a more attractive place for private investment,” one senior official told the outlet.
“There are some honest conversations happening behind the scenes,” another unnamed federal officer told Politico.
Republicans on Capitol Hill have taken aim at the White House for disbursing billions of dollars in military and economic aid to Ukraine despite widespread concerns of corruption. Over the weekend, legislators agreed to a short-term spending bill that won over Republican support after removing war funding to Ukraine from the package.
Representative Chip Roy (R., Tex.) underscored the need for dealing with urgent internal matters before giving money to foreign wars. The leader of the House Freedom Caucus reaffirmed his vote for the budget with “the same message I’ve had for a long time, which is no security, no funding.”
“That’s particularly true with Ukraine. And so if we don’t have border security, under no circumstances should a single dollar go to Ukraine,” Roy told the Wall Street Journal.
“These are internal American games. And Ukraine is a hostage to this discussion – this internal war,” a Ukrainian soldier told CNN on Sunday following the development. “America’s strategic interests are so big that Ukraine is part of them,” he added. “And I think that the internal political struggle cannot affect the assistance to Ukraine that much. There will be some errors, but they will be insignificant.”
In late February, the House Armed Services Committee held hearings to underscore the need for greater accountability following the Biden administration granting $75 billion worth of assistance. “These are unprecedented numbers,” Representative Mike Rogers (R., Ala.) said during the hearings. “And it requires an unprecedented level of oversight by Congress.”
Then-undersecretary of Defense for policy Colin Kahl sought to reassure the committee that the department was following the letter of the law. “We’re not just taking the Ukrainians words for it,” Kahl said. “They provide us information on their inventories, their transfer logs, we have provided them handheld scanners, that data gets transmitted directly back to us so that we can keep custody.”
Ukraine ranked 116 out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s 2022 corruption-perception index, with nearly a quarter of “public service users” paying a bribe in the previous year.
The former American ambassador to Ukraine, William Taylor, told Politico that most citizens are supportive of such anti-corruption measures, “as long as it doesn’t get in the way of the assistance we provide them to win the war.”