Ukraine has been plagued with corruption over its entire existence. It’s a problem that is rooted in the country, and one that Zelensky has been trying to solve for the past 4 years. 

By Thomas Cayetanot – 11th grade.

Corruption is found in all places of Ukraine’s government, including its top officials. Oleh Tatarov was appointed Deputy Head of the Presidential Office by Zelensky in 2020. And as of 2020, he has been accused of corruption. During the days of Euromaidan, he was supposedly involved in accounts of bribery and fraud with a construction firm, UkrBud. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine came out with an investigation case against him, revealing he had accepted and given bribes to various sources and was involved in an episode of fraud in the building of apartments for the National Guard. And, over the years, he has been able to escape prosecution and judgment, being shielded by his position in the government.

This one example of corruption within Ukraine’s government brings up a larger issue of government corruption and dishonesty. This problem is a systemic one that has plagued the Ukrainian government since the days of the USSR, and has invaded all aspects of the country, from top officials to lower ones, from the medical sphere to education and justice. Nowadays, more than half of the population of Ukraine sees corruption as a regular part of life within the country. According to Transparency International, at least 23% of government officials have received some sort of bribery over the past 12 months. The country has been ranked the 116th most corrupt nation out of 180 accounted for, as of 2022. And Zelensky has attempted to put an end to this ever since winning his election in 2019.  

Zelensky entered the political game in 2019, with that year’s presidential election. He was a fresh, new face to politics, working in the entertainment industry beforehand, as an actor and comedian. This career went on until he founded his political party, The Servant of the People, in 2016. And over the course of a few years, Zelensky gained popularity fast. He promised massive changes, wanting to end the war, and running under ideas of fighting back against corruption and promoting a better Ukraine that would participate more in global politics. He ran a particularly unorthodox campaign, doing multiple comedy tours, and focusing his efforts more on social media, and less on traditional debates and interviews. He seemed like a promising new arrival to politics ; someone that could actually bring change and erase corruption from the country. And with these ideas, he beat former president Petro Poroshenko, and assumed the presidency. 

Ever since 2019, as president he has wanted to make an effort against corruption, for multiple reasons. The first being his desire to enter global alliances and organizations such as NATO and the EU. He has further pushed against corruption with top government officials, to better appeal as a candidate in joining them.
An accepted membership into either of these organizations is even more important in a time of war. It would bring better military, political and economical protection to Ukraine, strengthening their ties with allies. 

Trying to clean the government of any corruption also makes the country more appealing for foreign aid. It shows an active effort in trying to better the Ukrainian government, so that the money received will be better handled. Corruption has been a main talking point of countries like the US, who are consistently supplying the country with weapons and money. Since the beginning of the war in February 2022, the US Congress has approved $110 billion dollars in economic and military aid for the country. With such a large sum of money, how and by who it will be used cannot be ignored or simply brushed over.

And lastly, Zelensky has wanted to make a clearer and more transparent government, that could better represent the people, and leave its history of corruption behind. He wishes for a better government that could work more efficiently, especially in a time of war. Zelensky wishes to create a new Ukraine, one that could better match today’s current democracy.

So what has he done to push against corruption? He has made multiple efforts to eliminate any top government officials that might be corrupt. Over this past time of war, there has been the resignation of the defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, after he was involved in multiple scandals about military spending. Zelensky has fired 6 deputy defense ministers who were receiving criticism over potential mismanagement of the war time budget. He has additionally fired all 24 chiefs of Ukraine’s regional military recruitment offices, after they had received allegations of accepting bribes to leave some out of the military and out of the draft. And there are currently multiple outgoing officials including five regional governors, four deputy ministers and a senior presidential office official, all having been suspected of corruption. 

Overall, the world can see that Zelensky does want to create a new Ukrainian government. Cases outing corrupt government officials seem to be coming out every week, declaring that they will be removed and replaced. Zelensky is determined to do what is possible for the better of his country. He is making progress. But this progress remains very slow and gradual and it lacks any substantial change, still leaving Ukraine as the second most corrupt country in Europe.