Following House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s removal of additional aid to Ukraine in the bill to avoid a federal government shutdown, the Biden administration is now focusing on corruption, according to a leaked document discussing U.S. strategy on Ukraine.
The document, obtained by Politico, says the U.S. is trying to reform Ukraine, believing that political dishonesty would cause more Western allies to stay out of the war. These anti-corruption refinements, according to the document, include pushing Ukraine’s military to implement NATO policies, privatizing banks, and creating a “decentralized, risk-tolerant approach to execution of tasks” in national security.
The U.S. also called on Ukraine to conduct “deoligarchization, particularly of the energy and mining sectors” out of concern that too few people control the entirety of the country’s economy.
The paperwork in question was confidential so as not to encourage even more Republicans to press for limiting U.S. military and financial aid. In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky cut seven senior defense officials for alleged corruption last month.
