Adrian Karatnycky is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and author of “Battleground Ukraine: From Independence to the Russian War,” due for publication later this year.
In recent days, a flurry of articles in Ukrainian and Western media have reported both alleged and actual scams involving price gouging. Catering to the Ukrainian military, and selling shoddy body armor at inflated prices. As a result, several prominent Ukrainian Defense Ministry officials have been dismissed, one has been caught with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, and criminal investigations have been launched.
Thus far, the scale of the alleged breaches is in the hundreds of millions of dollars – huge sums to be sure. But this is a drop in the bucket considering the hundreds of millions in Ukrainian and Western-donated defense resources that have been deployed since Russia’s massive invasion.
Anti-corruption activists have rightly decried the secrecy surrounding procurement contracts and identified weaknesses in internal auditing techniques and systems. But Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov has retorted that even public procurement of food for the military could reveal information about its size and other wartime secrets useful to Russia.
Reznikov also noted that if there was an increase in prices for some food items, it was only in one of the eight contracts sealed by the ministry, as well as the fact that amid rising global food prices, per capita The total cost of food provision for the military was only 10 percent higher than in the year before the war – this, despite the logistical challenges of operating in war zones.
And all of this needs to be taken into account as Reznikov’s fate is being debated. However, at the time of writing, cooler heads seem to prevail.
United States and NATO officials say the alleged abuses are not directly related to billions in arms and to transfers of weapons Ukraine receives from the West. Indeed, the best evidence of the effective use of Western military aid is being displayed on the battlefield, where the Ukrainian military has excelled.
Furthermore, the Ukrainian government’s response to allegations of fraud and possible corruption has been very reasonable. Those directly responsible for the dubious contracts have resigned and a criminal investigation has been launched. Furthermore, the Ministry of Defense and Parliament have moved quickly to find a middle ground. Between secrecy and accountability in wartime procurement.
Despite these facts, however, a small group of fervent anti-corruption activists and journalists—anyone with direct experience in the national security or military industrial sectors—have called for Reznikov’s resignation or dismissal.
Certainly all corruption and price fixing should be investigated and punished – especially in a country where every stolen dollar undermines the war effort. Nevertheless, given the scale of wartime budgets, which take up the bulk of state expenditure and resources, it is important to realize that the likelihood of such occurrences is inevitable, even with the best systems of control and audit. also with.
This is all the more so given the environment Ukraine faced in the early months of the year, when Russian forces were rapidly advancing, as the priority at that dangerous time was to quickly procure available supplies, while the country The Army, National Guard and regional defense units were expanded.
In 1982, during the early days of Ronald Reagan’s US presidency and the country’s military build-up against the Soviet threat, noted strategic theorist Edward Lutwak (whose recent views on war with Russia have not been well received by Ukrainians ) published an important Essay Title, “Why we need more waste, fraud and abuse at the Pentagon.
Lutwak’s provocative title was making a rather mundane point: America needed a much larger defense budget, and such an increased budget would inevitably lead to waste, sometimes fraud, and mismanagement. Lutwak further argued that it was important to try to respond to and mitigate such systemic failures, recognizing that they are inevitable and should not undermine the need for a strong military built on innovation.
He also warned against excessive civilian micromanagement and control, concluding: “If the price of a wiser strategy, better operational methods, and more ingenious tactics is actually the neglect of micromanagement, so be it.”
Lutwak’s argument has salience for Ukraine which is now caught in an existential war against President Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Amidst the current set of allegations, both the Ukrainian public and the country’s Western friends must acknowledge that there will be occasional failures in the army’s control system. And these failures should be viewed as par for the course in any army that is rapidly building up and facing war-time exigencies.
Undoubtedly, such failures should lead to reforms in the system of control and punishment to the culprits of corruption. However, they should not prompt a witch hunt, which could unnecessarily destroy Ukraine’s very effective national security leadership.
The occasional failures of the Ministry of Defense must be judiciously weighed against Reznikov’s impressive record of achievement. Besides Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, he has emerged as the most effective advocate of Western military aid, and his cogent arguments have won the confidence of Western allies.
Ukraine should only change horses midway under exceptionally dire circumstances – and based on what we know, such circumstances are currently absent.