News - World: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars that the US allocated for the purchase of fuel, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh has revealed in his latest report.

The report first published on Hersh’s weblog, accuses the Ukrainian government of using US taxpayer money to purchase diesel from Russia to fuel its military.

The report further suggested that Ukrainian officials are also “competing” to set up front companies for export contracts to private arms dealers around the world.

“One estimate by analysts from the Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) put the embezzled funds at $400 million last year, at least; another expert compared the level of corruption in Kiev as approaching that of the Afghan war, ‘although there will be no professional audit reports emerging from Ukraine’,” Hersh reported.

He claimed that instead of purchasing fuel via the Pakistani port, the Ukrainian president has been purchasing fuel from Russia, a country with which both Ukraine and the United States are at war, and is in the process of skimming large sums of US funds earmarked for diesel payments.

By purchasing cheaper Russian oil, Zelensky and his associates are pocketing the balance amount received from the USA, according to the investigative journalist. Reports had earlier surfaced about how oil products originating in Russia had made their way to Ukraine through Bulgaria and Latvia.

Hersh said that he was informed that many government agencies in Kiev had been competing to establish front businesses for export deals of guns and ammunition with independent arms dealers across the world, all of whom offered kickbacks. Many of those businesses are located in Poland, the Czech Republic, the occupied land of Palestine, and the Persian Gulf.

Hersh cited an intelligence source who referred to the January meeting between Zelensky and CIA Director, William Burns, who delivered a striking message to the Ukrainian President.

“The senior generals and government officials in Kiev were angry at what they saw as Zelensky’s greed, so Burns told the Ukrainian president, because he was taking a larger share of the skim money than [the money that] was going to the generals,” he unveiled.

While much of Hersh’s report is difficult to independently corroborate, there are details that match verifiable reporting. Hersh reported that “Burns also presented Zelensky with a list of thirty-five generals and senior officials whose corruption was known to the CIA and others in the American government.”

Zelensky responded to the American pressure ten days later by publicly dismissing ten of the most ostentatious officials on the list and doing little else, he revealed.

“On January 24, following several prominent corruption scandals, including two major investigations involving the embezzlement of funds, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced ‘personnel decisions’ across different government ministries and within Ukrainian law enforcement,” the report continued.

“Zelensky also announced that state officials would be banned from traveling internationally for non-government purposes following a report that a now-former top prosecutor vacationed in Spain despite a martial law that bans Ukrainian men ages 18 to 60 from leaving the country without permission.”

Meanwhile, citing an intelligence official, Hersh also said that the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines and lack of strategic planning with regard to Ukraine had caused a growing rift between the White House and the US intelligence community.

Over the past few weeks, several classified documents, some even marked “top secret”, found their way to the internet. The intelligence leak is shaping up to be one of the most damaging in decades, officials said.

A batch of US classified documents leaked on social media recently revealed that Washington has serious concerns about Ukraine's capacity to defend against Russia and Kiev is suffering heavy losses in the war.

The leaks also seem to indicate that the United States is also spying on Ukraine’s top military and political leaders. And the spying doesn’t stop there. The leaked documents have also shown that Washington is spying on its allies — something that could hurt US diplomatically.

Source: Press TV