Ukraine deputy minister sacked for alleged theft of $400,000
Ukraine’s deputy infrastructure minister, Vasyl Lozinskyi, has been detained and dismissed from his post for allegedly stealing $400,000 (£320,000) intended for purchasing aid, including generators, according to Ukraine’s state anti-corruption detectives and prosecutors.
After the news emerged, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, vowed that the old ways of corruption would not return to Ukraine.
“I want this to be clear: there will be no return to what used to be in the past, to the way various people close to state institutions or those who spent their entire lives chasing a chair [a state position] used to live,” said Zelenskiy in his nightly address on Sunday without specifically mentioning the case.
Lozinskyi is said to have colluded with contractors to inflate the price of generators and siphoned off part of the difference, according to Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies. Other national and regional officials are also said to have been involved. Over summer, the Ukrainian government allocated 1.68bn hryvnia (approximately £36.7m) for goods and technology that would help provide alternative sources of energy, water and heat for its population during winter.
The goods were bought to prepare Ukraine in case Russia targeted its energy infrastructure – which it has done on a regular basis, starting in September.
Lozinskyi was detained on Saturday by anti-corruption investigators. In a statement, they said they found $38,000 in cash in Lozinskyi’s office and published a picture of piles of dollar and hryvnia notes. On Sunday, Lozinskyi was sacked from the government. He has made no comment on the allegations.
Before the war, corruption scandals were an almost daily feature of Ukrainian political life. The country was ranked 122 out of 180 by Transparency International in 2021, making it one of the world’s most corrupt countries. The EU has made anti-corruption reforms one of the key requirements for Ukraine gaining EU membership.
Since the war, there have been far fewer known instances of corruption as society focused on the wartime effort. But journalists have returned to scrutinising the elites in recent months.
Pavlo Halimon, deputy head of Zelenskiy’s party – named after his TV show, Servant of the People – was also dismissed on Monday because of corruption allegations, which he has not responded to. Ukrainian news site Ukrainska Pravda published an investigation on Monday morning into his purchase of a Kyiv property for more than his declared means. The head of Zelenskiy’s party, Davyd Arakhamia, called for the matter to be investigated and dismissed Hamilon, saying his actions contradicted the values of the party.
“If you are an [MP] and have a few extra million hryvnias, then you should help your country. This is your duty,” said Arakhamia.
Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksiy Reznikov, also found himself in the spotlight this week after another Ukrainian publication, ZN.UA, published an investigation into food procurement by the defence ministry. It claimed that food contracts for the army were being inflated. But Reznikov has denied the claims and has insisted a parliamentary committee be established to investigate. According to Reznikov, the price difference can be explained, in part, by deliveries to frontline areas and in part because different suppliers have different specialities.
Zelenskiy, who was elected on a pledge to change the way Ukraine was governed in 2019, also said in his nightly speech on Sunday there would be an announcement on the issue of corruption this week.
“This week will be the time for appropriate decisions,” Zelenskiy said. “The decisions have already been prepared. I do not want to make them public at this time, but it will all be fair.”
Reuters contributed to this report
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/23/ukraine-deputy-minister-sacked-for-alleged-theft-of-400000
Ex-Russian Commander Explains Why Putin's Success in Ukraine Is Impossible
Igor Girkin, a former Russian commander, explained on Sunday why Russian President Vladimir Putin's success in Ukraine is "impossible" after nearly 11 months of combat.
Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, aiming for a quick victory against his Eastern European neighbor, widely perceived as having a smaller, less capable military than Moscow. However, Ukraine responded with a stronger-than-expected defense effort that has been bolstered by Western military aid, blunting Russian military gains.
Putin's invasion exposed weaknesses within Moscow's military, opening up opportunity for Ukraine to launch its own counteroffensive in the fall. During these counteroffensives, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zeleknsky's troops retook thousands of square miles of formerly occupied territory—as Putin increasingly relies on the Wagner Group, a Russian paramilitary unit, to achieve new victories, such as in the battle for Soledar earlier this month.
However, the Biden administration has pushed back on Russia's assertions that it now fully controls Soledar. During a telephone briefing last week, John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for Strategic Communications at the White House, said that "we do not assess that [the Russians] have actually unilaterally taken both cities," referring to Soledar and Bakhmut.
Girkin, who rose to notoriety for his military role in the 2014 annexation of Crimea, revealed in a Telegram post on Sunday the top factor inhibiting Russian success in Ukraine.
The former Russian commander pointed to low morale among Putin's troops as making success "impossible" for the Russian leader.
"The majority of mobilized (and most of the cadre) servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation lack the motivation to sacrifice when conducting hostilities against the Armed Forces of Ukraine, since the goals of the war are not only not explained by the authorities, but even not officially defined at all," Girkin wrote.
Although Girkin, a self-described Russian nationalist, does not oppose the Ukraine war, he has grown increasingly critical of Kremlin leadership in recent months as the war stagnates. He added that, because Russia has officially classified the invasion as a "special military operation" rather than a war, leaders are limited in their disciplinary actions.
He explained Russia can deploy elite units for successful attacks "only in very narrow, limited areas," but a larger offensive would require numerical and technical superiority over Ukraine. Still, he said these conditions are "not a guarantee" when faced with "the most persistent and professional" Ukrainian troops.
Due to low morale, an offensive could only be "saved" by Ukrainian troops being in an even worse state, according to Girkin.
"Faced with persistent and skillful enemy resistance, such an offensive will inevitably die out due to the impossibility of the command to force its troops to go into battle with the necessary degree of military prowess," he wrote.
Military Experts Point to Low Morale for Russian Failures
Girkin is not the only expert to attribute low morale to Russia's failure to achieve substantial goals in Ukraine. Morale was seen as a key weakness among Russian troops for months, and has only been made worse by the winter.
"The weather itself is likely to see an increase in rainfall, wind speed and snowfall. Each of these will provide additional challenges to the already low morale of Russian forces, but also present problems for kit maintenance," the United Kingdom's Defense Ministry said in November.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based think think, also assessed last November that morale among Russian troops was "exceedingly low."
"Significant losses on the battlefield, mobilization to the front lines without proper training, and poor supplies have led to cases of desertion," the ISW wrote.
Newsweek reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment.
https://www.newsweek.com/ex-russian-...ssible-1775576
Most of Wagner Prisoner Fighters Are Dead or Deserted After Soledar: Report
Approximately just one-fifth of the former Russian prisoners recruited to fight against Ukraine as part of the Wagner Group remain, according to a Russian journalist.
Olga Romanova, head of the Rus Seated charity foundation, said in a YouTube video published by the My Russian Rights project that the private military company (PMC) headed by Russian financier and longtime Vladimir Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin had recruited in the range of 42,000 to 43,000 prisoners by the end of last year.
That tally has most likely surpassed 50,000 fighters in the present state of the war, she said, according to a translation from news outlet Meduza. But of those approximate 50,000 soldiers, only "10,000 are fighting at the front, because all the rest are either killed...or missing, or deserted, or surrendered."
She also suggested that Prigozhin does not keep statistics on missing or defected prisoners, instead writing off such soldiers as deceased whether or not it's factual.
Meduza reported on Friday about a woman who received an empty coffin from the Wagner Group, though she was unaware it was empty at the time.
Following a burial service for her husband this winter, the woman—cited by the alias of Angelina—told media outlet TV Rain, or Dozhd as it is known in Russian, that she found out her husband was still alive and fighting in Ukraine.
The woman also said she found out her husband, who had been serving a sentence in an unspecified Russian penal colony, was fighting for the Wagner Group only because the relative of another convict had informed her.
She added that she doubted her husband joined the cause voluntarily because "he treated Ukraine well."
After beginning his assignment in the fall, the woman said her husband stopped communicating by the winter. She later received a call from the Wagner Group itself, informing her that her husband was allegedly killed in the Bakhmut region of Ukraine.
Her family was later given a closed zinc coffin, medals, a certificate of honor and a death certificate.
"They told us that there was no need to open the coffin, because before sending [fighters to the war], they take some DNA, and when the corpses are found, they compare them," said the woman. "They told us that they gave us a 100 percent guarantee that it is him."
Claims of a mostly depleted force comprised of prisoners and mercenaries accompany new reports of tension between Prigozhin and Putin, due to the group not living up to its advertised military prowess.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said Prigozhin's "star has begun to set" after failed promises of capturing the Donetsk city of Bakhmut.
"Prigozhin's comments reflect a cowboy approach to war that is unsuited to the development and maintenance of an effective large-scale and disciplined modern military," ISW reported in one assessment.
Prigozhin has even taken matters into his own hands to dispute a statement on Friday from White House national security spokesman John Kirby that the Wagner Group had been designated a "transnational criminal organization."
"Could you please clarify what crime was committed by PMC Wagner," Prigozhin wrote in a short letter in both English and Russian that was shared on his Telegram social media channel.
Newsweek reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment.
https://www.newsweek.com/most-wagner...battle-1775890
100 Leopard tanks in 12 countries are standing by for Germany's go-ahead
100 Leopard tanks in 12 countries are standing by for Germany's go-ahead to be sent to Ukraine, official says
Twelve countries are waiting on Germany's go-ahead to send around 100 Leopard tanks to Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian official told ABC News on Monday.
International pressure has grown on German's Chancellor Olaf Scholz to grant permission to export the much-sought-after German battle tanks to Ukraine.
The countries involved agreed to contribute at a summit in Germany on Friday, the unnamed official told ABC News.
But Germany has the right to block the re-export of its tanks, and Scholz has named several conditions — including the US also sending tanks — before signaling it would be willing to allow the transfer.
Poland and Finland have said openly they are readying to send their tanks, but before Friday's meeting it was unclear how many countries would join them.
Lithuania's Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas told Reuters that he estimated the pledges would be at least 100.
On Sunday, Germany's Foreign Minister Anna Baerbock said that she "would not stand in the way" of the transfer if Poland makes a formal request, as the BBC reported. But it was unclear whether Scholz, at that point, agreed.
Poland's Defense Minister Mariusz Bɫaszczak tweeted on Tuesday that an official request to transfer the tanks had been sent.
In an interview with German TV station ARD, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke of the impact on morale the tanks would have even if they represent only a small portion of the tanks that Russia is able to field.
"When they have a thousand tanks, any country's decision to give us 10, 20 or 50 tanks can solve the problem," he told the station, per Ukrainska Pradva's translation.
"They do only one very important thing – they motivate our soldiers to fight for their own values. Because they show that the whole world is with you," he said, while criticizing the reported German position of waiting for the US to move first.
At the same time, the UK's decision to send 14 of its Challenger tanks — viewed as a mostly symbolic effort to get other countries moving — helped the diplomatic process, the unnamed Ukrainian official told ABC News.
Prior to Poland's request, the debate has proceeded along the lines of informal diplomatic enquiries.
But those enquiries from Poland have ramped up, with the country's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki indicating last week that if Germany was unwilling to accede to the request, Poland might send them anyway.
"Consent is a secondary issue here," he told Polish radio station PolskiRadio24. "We will either get this agreement quickly, or we will do the right thing ourselves."
Germany is not alone in its stance. Switzerland has also opposed multiple requests from Ukraine's allies to re-export its munitions — including one request from Germany to send 35mm ammunition, as Reuters reported.
Russia has sought to capitalize on the disagreements, portraying them as evidence of weakness within the European pro-Ukrainian alliance.
https://www.businessinsider.com/100-...-scholz-2023-1
