Eggs, ammo and underwear: Inside Ukraine’s new push against military graft

livemint.com:

KYIV, Ukraine—Masked Ukrainian security officers have raided properties, seized wads of cash and detained suspects in a recent crackdown on graft in the purchase of goods for the military ranging from eggs to artillery shells. At the same time, a quieter operation is being waged by a new team of professionals including a former energy executive called Maryna Bezrukova. From her office in a gleaming business center in Kyiv, she is on a quest to save money and ensure new arms contracts are untainted.

“We need to change the system," said Bezrukova, who became head of Ukraine’s Defense Procurement Agency earlier this year. “Unless we change the system, nothing will happen." As Ukraine faces setbacks on the battlefield in the third year of Russia’s invasion, attention has turned to corruption that is corroding support for the war effort at home and abroad. Allegations of graft have helped galvanize Republican opponents of military aid to Kyiv, who are holding a $60 billion package hostage to their demands for tighter border control.

Short of munitions and men, Ukrainian forces are struggling to hold the line against a much larger enemy. Corruption is also denting morale and making it harder to persuade more Ukrainians to risk their lives. Ukrainian anticorruption activists say the steely-eyed Bezrukova has what it takes to challenge entrenched interests and shady middlemen while negotiating arms deals worth billions of dollars.

Her efforts to clean up arms procurement could prove more meaningful than the recent spate of arrests, they say. But the scale of the challenge is huge. “Of course, it’s not easy," said Bezrukova, likening her mission to sewing a parachute while in freefall.