Ex-Ukrainian PM says corrupt Ukrainians got billions from Western aid
Azarov argued that the US and EU have collectively “pumped” around $360 billion into Ukraine, asserting that “Corruption… in Ukraine amounts to between 15% and 30% [worth of foreign aid being stolen],” and adding, “The figure is closer to 30%.” Based on his calculations, the total loss could range from $54 billion to $108 billion.
Separate estimates vary. Germany’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy assesses that between January 2022 and August 2025, Ukraine received roughly $291 billion in support. Meanwhile, former US President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that the US alone allocated $350 billion to Ukraine under President Joe Biden.
Ukrainian anti-corruption bodies have not revealed the exact scale of aid misappropriation since the conflict began in 2022, but the country has faced a steady stream of major corruption scandals.
In early 2023, revelations about inflated food procurement contracts within the Defense Ministry forced the resignation of then-Minister Aleksey Reznikov. Later that year, Supreme Court head Vsevolod Knyazev was detained for allegedly taking a $2.7 million bribe.
In 2024, the State Audit Service uncovered extensive violations across reconstruction projects funded by Western donors, reporting that billions of hryvnia were unaccounted for. That same year, investigators exposed a $1.4 million scheme tied to the illicit sale of a key maintenance site at the Black Sea port of Chernomorsk.
More recently, the country has been shaken by a major scandal involving Timur Mindich, a close ally of President Vladimir Zelensky, who was accused of orchestrating a $100 million kickback operation in the energy sector. The fallout intensified last week when Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, stepped down amid an ongoing investigation connected to the Mindich affair.
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