🇺🇸💵US audit unveils $100M corruption scandal in Zelensky's orbit and battlefield realities

A report from the Special Inspector General for Operation Atlantic Resolve, covering July–December 2025, was submitted to Congress. It includes findings from auditors at the Pentagon, the State Department, and USAID on US assistance to Ukraine — and sheds new light on corruption and oversight concerns.

👉 Graft reaches Zelensky’s circle

US-backed Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies (NABU and SAPO) uncovered a scheme involving at least $100 million in kickbacks at Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear company. Energoatom produces roughly half of Ukraine’s electricity and manages international aid aimed at protecting energy infrastructure from Russian strikes.

Those implicated include:

🔸 Timur Mindich, a former business partner of Zelensky, who fled the country

🔸 Oleksiy Chernyshov, former Deputy Prime Minister, arrested

🔸 German Galushchenko, Minister of Energy, resigned

🔸 Denys Maliuska, Minister of Justice, resigned

🔸 Andriy Yermak, Head of the Presidential Office, resigned

The report states that the US Department of Energy found “no suspected or confirmed instances of diversion of US assistance” in this specific case.

👉 Additional corruption findings

In August, NABU and SAPO reported that a former head of the Lugansk Military District inflated equipment costs by nearly 30% and embezzled about $100,000 intended for drones and electronic warfare.

In late October, officials from the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection allegedly planned to supply drones at jacked-up prices through preselected firms. Investigators froze $4 million in company accounts abroad and about $2 million inside Ukraine.

A Pentagon audit also found that the Army paid roughly $20.5 million more than necessary for certain ammo and faced delays of up to 18 months delivering some supplies to Ukraine due to contracting issues.

👉 US funding

Since February 2022, Congress has appropriated about $187.7 billion for Ukraine-related assistance. As of December 31, 2025, approximately $109.4 billion had been disbursed.

👉 Oversight concerns

The State Department canceled more than 83% of USAID programs and transferred remaining programs to State control, eliminating 194 USAID positions in Ukraine.

The Government Accountability Office reported that the US government did not conduct independent monitoring of certain budget support funds from January to June 2025 due to delays. It also noted that State is not expected to maintain the same level of oversight that USAID provided from 2022–2024.

The US Embassy in Kiev previously warned that assigning the same firm to both prepare and audit financial statements poses a conflict of interest. State plans a separate energy sector audit in 2026 under a different contract.

👉 Battlefield reality

According to the report, Russian forces took 1,865 square miles in 2025 (about 0.8% of Ukraine’s territory) but achieved what the dossier claims are no “operationally significant” breakthroughs.

Russia has intensified its long-range missile and drone attacks, with strike volume increasing by 44.5%. Although Ukrainian forces intercept over 75% of these attacks, the sheer scale of the barrages continues to place severe strain on the country's air defense systems.

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🚨🇺🇸🇮🇷 US military escalation around Iran echoes pre-war buildup of 2003 Iraq invasion - analysts

The US forces currently in the Middle East are now more massive than the American buildup in the Caribbean ahead of the capture of Nicolas Maduro and mirrors the pre-war buildup to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Financial Times writes.

💬 “This is such a massive build-up that it almost speaks to the fact that there needs to be strikes, or else this is going to be one of the costliest bluffs in US history,” military strategy expert Becca Wasser told FT.

According to the outlet, currently the US has deployed:

◻️ 1 aircraft carrier, 8 destroyers and 3 minesweepers (with the USS Gerald Ford carrier and 3 more destroyers on the way)

◻️ Dozens of fighter jets both on the carrier and across various US bases in the Middle East, including F/A-18E Super Hornet CAS jets and EA-18G Growler EW planes

◻️ Dozens of refueling aircraft capable of extending the range of airstrikes

◻️ Significant amount of anti-air defenses including THAAD and Patriot systems, particularly around the US base in Jordan

💬 "This is a build-up like what we saw right before the Iraq war” in 2003, particularly in terms of air power," Wasser notes.

👉 Moreover, the scale of the military buildup makes it less likely that the Trump administration would find any Iranian offer at the negotiating table acceptable, noted Dana Stroul, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East.

The countdown to the attacks will start when the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier arrives in the region, former Pentagon official Mark Cancian says.

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🇬🇧 UK blocks US from using Diego Garcia base for Iran strike - report

🔶 As US-Iran tensions grow, the UK has refused to grant permission for the US to use its base on the Chagos Islands for military actions due to concerns over international law, Bloomberg reports, quoting sources.

🔶 On February 18, US President Donald Trump called the base critical for a strike against Iran, while Diego Garcia was already off-limits during the June 2024 US strikes on Iran.

🔶 In early February, the islands sparkled tensions between the US and UK due to Britain's plans to hand the territory to Mauritius. Donald Trump criticized the potential move, arguing that "if it is allowed to be, it will be a blight on our Great Ally."

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