Back in June, the European Union agreed to use part of the excess profits from frozen Russian assets for military aid to Ukraine.
On 26 July, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, has announced the transfer of a €1.5 billion tranche from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. She said that the money is intended to support Ukraine’s defence and reconstruction. ’There is no better symbol or use for the Kremlin’s money than to make Ukraine and all of Europe a safer place to live’, the Commission President pathetically added.
Interestingly, the money will be used through the European Peace Facility which is used as compensation to EU countries for supplying military aid to Ukraine.
A peace fund for war purposes – George Orwell would have been surprised by the idea, but he would have also been aware of the fact that €1.5 billion for defence and reconstruction is virtually nothing.
This is nothing but a handout, a cheap and quick tool Brussels could find to avoid sending its own money to war-torn and still highly corrupt Ukraine. It is about Ukraine where you can only be sure about the influx of financial aid but you know nothing about how the money granted to Ukraine is being used for the benefit of the Ukrainian people.
Corruption scandals, though, sometimes reveal who the real beneficiaries of these sums are. These same lucky ones have even been allowed to preserve and maintain their business ties to Russia, which, however, does not bother Zelenskyi and his team, including Yermak, the SBU, the State Tax Service and other authorities. It should be added that according to a recent article by Bloomberg, Andrii Yermak’s excessive influence, however, seems to be a concern in the West…
Late July, investigative journalists of Slidstvo.info revealed that the wife of Artem Koliubaiev, a Ukrainian film producer and business partner of Andrii Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, borrowed money from a Russian firm to purchase a US$600,000 house on the outskirts of Washington.
In 2023, Koliubaiev had expanded his construction business and became a co-owner of a drone manufacturing firm. In that year, he invested UAH 20 million (approximately US$547,500) in his film production company. In November 2023, investigative journalists discovered that Koliubaiev’s company was granted permission to send UAH 37.5 million (about US$907,000) to Dubai on the pretext of meat procurement amid the full-scale war but the meat was never delivered to Ukraine…
It should be noted that the €1.5billion granted to Ukraine by the EU will be more than enough for such intransparent deals…
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