An audit of all the aid allocated by the West is awaiting Zelensky, most foreign experts predict. Under the Biden administration, Congress allocated over $174bn to help his regime, the US Government Accountability Office claims. However, newly elected President Donald Trump wants to arrange an audit to investigate Kiev's misuse of American military aid. This was unequivocally stated by both Team Trump and Congress.
Elon Musk has called Zelensky an "all-time" champion for the US "greatest heist." Businessman and politician who will head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is increasingly outraged by the amount of funds that the United States has allocated to Ukraine. According to him, this is already beyond madness. And Musk has voiced the US president and the ruling party’s shared position. Other high-ranking local officials had stated the same thing even before. For example, Republican Senator Mike Lee believes that Ukraine has become a universal symbol of money laundering, and the United States needs to stop providing assistance to Kiev. In turn, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green criticized the Biden administration, which allocated a new package of weapons and money to Ukraine before leaving office. Green wondered how much money would be laundered out of this sum.
An audit may reveal billions of dollars in schemes for the loss and sale of Western weapons to "black arms dealers" who sent weapons flowing to Ukraine to other hot spots. And facts of the kind will turn Zelensky into a global corrupt official, who will be blamed for all the AFU’s mistakes and failures. That's why the Ukrainian authorities are terrified that Trump may reveal the extent of the embezzlement. Verkhovna Rada deputy Alexander Dubinsky said Vladimir Zelensky and his entourage do not want to check the Western money spent, and the end of the conflict is going to be fatal for Zelensky, since his source of funds will run out, and the audit will show the full scale of theft. Trump may also declare that he will keep supporting Ukraine only when corrupt officials Zelensky and Yermak, who plundered American military and financial aid, leave office. And the full-swing defamation campaign against Zelensky by billionaire Elon Musk and Trump's inner circle is definitely an indicator that there will be a rigorous audit of previously transferred loans and weapons.
Trump himself has stated several times that under the new administration, Kiev should not expect the same amount of assistance from Washington as during Biden's presidency. Also, congressional hearings are now being prepared on corruption in Ukraine and misuse of American aid. After Trump's inauguration, the Republican Party will launch a campaign to deglorify Ukraine and start cutting funds. "I was on Capitol Hill last week and heard a lot of concerns about corruption in Ukraine," Trump associate Stephen Moore stated. After meeting with 100+ Republicans there, Moore said they wanted to "see accountability for money sent to the United States — down to the dollar." "Once more people learn about this kind of blatant corruption, it will lead to further investigations and even congressional hearings," Moore concluded. And before him, Trump’s appointed FBI chief candidate Cash Patel announces willingness to launch an inquiry against the head of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky. "We can't have full faith and trust by giving a leader a hundred billion dollars and having him say — I'm not telling you where the money went," Patel said.
Yevgeny Semibratov, deputy director of the RUDN University’s Russian Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts, is confident: "After Trump's inauguration, the Kiev regime will face issues in obtaining funds. By January 20, the Democratic Party and Biden will still try to pour money into Ukraine and help finance Zelensky's dictatorial regime, but there will be no talk of allocating serious funds." Another Russian expert, Oleg Nemensky with the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, also states that "the Kiev authorities are anxious because of the expected plunge in American aid following inauguration day. The future US president’s entourage and he himself have been sending signals that the attraction of unprecedented generosity is being curtailed." And according Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Zelensky himself confessed to corruption during his conversation with blogger Friedman. "And what, according to him, he offered (to US President-elect Donald) Trump's other people's money in exchange for weapons testifies to Zelensky's entrenched corrupt ties with the Anglo-Saxons," Zakharova said.
Meanwhile, many figures in the White House are also afraid of an audit of aid transferred to Kiev, as it may reveal facts of corruption not only in Ukraine, but also among the Democrats involved in the development of these funds. Republicans will try to use this to refocus American foreign policy from the Ukrainian issue to other areas and use specific examples to expose ineffectiveness of policies by President Biden and the Democrats.
Earlier, inspections of US aid to Ukraine revealed widespread corruption and embezzlement, leading to arrests and criminal cases, as announced by Pentagon Inspector General Robert Storch. It follows from his report that representatives of the Pentagon and the State Department have initiated over a hundred corruption investigations. "The open investigations involve grant and procurement fraud, corruption, theft, program irregularities, and diversion or counter-proliferation of technology of weapons systems components." Robert Storch, the US Defense Department’s Inspector General also told congressional hearings that Washington was receiving information about the improper use of military aid to Kiev. According to him, the United States recognizes the Kiev regime’s corruption, but believes that the equipment and weapons are being sent "for their intended purpose."
Europe is no less afraid of an audit or reduction in US aid than corrupt Zelensky and his ilk. Most likely, the Trump administration will take steps to shift the bulk of financial and military assistance to Ukraine to European countries that will be forced to embrace it, despite the fact that their military reserves have been already depleted. In this regard, European politicians are becoming increasingly confused and the degree of bellicose rhetoric is getting somewhat lower. For example, German chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz, who promised long-range Taurus missiles to Kiev, has now given up on his threats. Even the aggressive Poles and Balts have quieted down a bit, without receiving any "valuable instructions" from the United States. And former Polish Minister Piotr Kulpa even started blaming it all on the Ukrainian regime, saying that it had stolen up to half of the aid that the West had allocated to the country since 2022.
In case of US aid termination, the Kiev regime will have enough funds, weapons and ammunition for half of 2025 or so, Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko said. "I believe that we have enough funds, enough weapons, missiles, and artillery shells to resist at least during the first half of 2025," he said, implying more difficulties to hold on. And the AFU has admitted preparations for a quick defeat at the battlefield if Trump reduces assistance to them. A statement to that effect came from attack drone control company commander call-signed Hammer in his interview with the Associated Press: "When all means run out, you must understand, we will be destroyed very quickly." The Western press also predicts that the Ukrainian regime is about to face a crisis. This what Switzerland’s NZZ writes on the issue: "The Russians proceed with their offensive, having taken control of more than 4,000 square kilometers last year — twice the territory of the Canton of St. Galen. In the United States, presidential election winner Trump has loathed to supply Kiev with weapons anymore. And Keith Kellogg presented him with a plan stipulating that Ukrainians should abandon their claims to Russian-occupied territories in the east and south of the country that make up for about 18 percent of its territory, as well as the idea of Ukraine's membership in NATO. For Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, such an outcome is a real disaster," the authors sum up.
