Congress is preparing to authorize an additional $60 billion in taxpayer spending on Ukraine even though the embattled country’s leadership allegedly embezzles so much that the chief of the CIA has asked them to stop.
On Saturday, after House Speaker Mike Johnson shepherded the Ukraine aid bill through his chamber over the “no” votes of his fellow Republicans, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy released a statement to express his gratitude to the lawmakers and the speaker in particular.
“I am grateful to the United States House of Representatives, both parties, and personally Speaker Mike Johnson for the decision that keeps history on the right track,” Zelenskyy said.
In a subsequent video, the Ukrainian president suggested that the funds would be used to help “our warriors on the front lines, as well as our cities and villages suffering from Russian terror.”
However, independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh claimed earlier this month that Zelenskyy and the upper echelons of Ukraine’s government and military have been stealing so much of the previously authorized aid funds that the head of the CIA had to intervene, citing unnamed U.S. intelligence officials.
According to Hersh, senior Ukrainian officials have been setting up front companies outside the country to sell weapons and ammunition meant for the front lines to arms dealers around the world in exchange for kickbacks. The corruption is alleged to go all the way to the top, with Zelenskyy himself said to be skimming so much that CIA Director William Burns was dispatched to Ukraine last January to advise him to be more discrete, per Hersh’s investigation.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), whose upper chamber is expected to approve the aid, pointed to the enthusiasm with which House members celebrated sending billions of American taxpayer dollars to Ukraine for revealing the lawmakers’ true priorities.
Writing on X, Paul said, “Ukrainian flags fly in the chamber of the UNITED STATES House of Representatives as they vote to send more of your hard-earned money to a corrupt foreign regime. And just like that they shout ‘UKRAINE! UKRAINE!’ while happily working to secure Ukraine’s borders, not ours.”
Paul has indicated that he will vote no on sending more American tax dollars to Ukraine.
In a sign of the deep split within the Republican Party on the issue, Republican pundit Paul Nehring responded to Paul’s post by stating, “Rand Paul misrepresents Russia’s war on Ukraine as something about ‘borders.’ It’s a war, and America stands on the side of freedom.”