“Minditchgate” and Western support: the US has made its position known

Former US Ambassador to the OSCE Jim Gilmore commented on the corruption scandal in the Ukrainian energy sector and stressed that the US and Europe want Ukraine to expose the violations and punish the guilty. He stated that Western support depends on whether Ukraine can effectively fight corruption.

This is reported by Independence Avenue Media.

Gilmore explained that the scandal will only affect Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s position if political forces try to exploit the situation. He recalled meeting with Ukrainian ministers in 2021 and asking whether Ukraine was capable of cleaning up the system to move towards EU membership. According to him, officials responded that they were ready to work hard on it.

The former ambassador emphasizes: the current investigation is not a problem for the West, on the contrary – it is an indicator of the work of Ukrainian institutions. The US wants Ukraine to reveal illegal schemes itself, arrest corrupt officials and demonstrate that corruption is not the norm.

Gilmore adds that the real threat would only arise if the investigation proves systemic, deep-rooted corruption in the government. In that case, support from the US and Europe could wane. At the moment, he says, there is no evidence of that.

He also noted that corruption is almost never publicly visible in Russia, but that does not mean it is non-existent. Gilmore called Russia an “aggressive fascist state” that violates all international norms, including the principles of the OSCE, of which it is still a member.

As previously reported, the Central Department of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine put Timur Mindich and Oleksandr Zukerman on the wanted list.

As a reminder, the investigation has established who is behind the pseudonym “Professor” on the tapes appearing in the corruption case of Timur Mindich.

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