Trump Intends to Use Massive Ukraine Corruption to Force Peace Deal
Nov. 14—Sources close to the White House report that President Donald Trump, frustrated by the refusal of NATO and its puppet Ukrainian dictator Volodymyr Zelenskyy to move even one inch toward a deal to end their losing war with Russia, intends to use the massive corruption of the Kyiv regime to force concessions by NATO and Ukraine to make a deal possible. These sources say that Trump sees the Ukrainian military position as hopeless, as its frontlines collapse under relentless Russian pressure and a lack of manpower to replace soldiers lost to the battle. Yet, Ukraine, under direct command from NATO and its British controllers, has been urged to fight on, with promises of continued support in weapons and munitions, and money to feed Zelenskyy's corrupt government.
Peace Talks Collapse Amid Accusations
Ukraine announced this week, through spokesmen linked to the shadowy figure who runs Zelenskyy for NATO, the chief of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak, that it had ended all negotiations with Russia in Istanbul—negotiations that had been prompted by Trump to accomplish simple, preliminary steps toward an agreement, such as prisoner exchanges. The Times of London dutifully reported the remarks of Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya that the Russia-Ukraine peace talks have been abandoned by Kyiv because they yielded little progress, which Kyslytsya attributed to Putin “the dictator.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented Nov. 12: “This is an admission that the Zelenskyy regime had no sincere desire for peace."
Zakharova also charged that the Ukrainian side had disrupted the agreements on prisoner exchanges. TASS noted that Kyslytsya had said that it was ostensibly impossible to hold “creative discussions” at the Istanbul talks. Zakharova said: “I confirm this. No one was going to hold ‘creative discussions’ with them. Specific proposals were made, in particular on prisoner exchanges,” she wrote on her Telegram channel. “So, the Kyiv regime has broken its latest promises on prisoner exchanges—less than 30% of the agreed-upon 1,200 have been exchanged. Ukrainian citizens should know this,” she concluded.
Trump’s Strategy: Expose Corruption to Force Concessions
Trump, sources report, has come to share this position, while continuing to urge Putin to walk the extra mile for peace.
"The only solution," said a source with knowledge of discussions among the Trump team, including Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, "is to flank NATO and Kyiv, and the way to do this is push the corruption of the Ukrainian government for all that it's worth, and that is starting to happen. We are not just talking about things internal to Ukraine. There's hundreds of millions in corruption there, and the Ukrainians would want to keep the focus there, even if it brings down people in Zelenskyy's inner circle. That's chicken feed compared to the billions that have been stolen from the U.S. and NATO arms shipments to Ukraine. They are selling the weapons on the black markets, to anyone that has the money to pay for them, and these profits are enormous, including directly to Zelenskyy and Yermak, who is said to be the person running, through intermediaries, this international arms bazaar."
U.S. intelligence has known this for some time, almost from the beginning of the war. Former CIA chief under Sleepy Joe Biden, William Burns, had wanted Biden to use this to force a negotiated end to the war, but Biden, under pressure from NATO, refused.
Now, sources report that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is reported to support action, at first covertly by Trump. "The President has more than once said that the U.S. should demand a full accounting of all weapons and monies given Kyiv," said the source. "At one point he joked that he should send Elon Musk and his DOGE team in there to see what is really going on. But, now no one is joking and Zelenskyy will soon know this, if he does not already."
Kyiv Launches Corruption Probe Amid Mounting Pressure
These and other sources say that, in an effort to claim that he is doing something about corruption, Zelenskyy authorized the release of materials from a 15-month investigation of bribes, embezzlement, and skimming involving his ranking government officials, bankers, and others in hundreds of millions in contracts to protect Ukraine's energy sector from Russian attack.
In an independent investigation released Nov. 10, authorities discovered a massive corruption scheme among the country’s elites, wherein politicians and other powerful individuals received kickbacks from contractors building those defenses. Five people were arrested, and seven others were placed under suspicion.
The probe, which took place over 15 months and involved some 1,000 hours of audio recordings and around 70 searches, raised questions as to whether potential graft had undercut Kyiv’s ability to defend itself from Russian airstrikes, which have caused widespread power outages ahead of an expected brutal winter.
Zelenskyy promised to support the investigation, even as authorities point fingers at some of Zelenskyy’s closest allies. He called Nov. 12 for Justice Minister German Galushchenko and Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk to step down over their alleged involvement. That same day, he also ordered Kyiv to sanction his longtime friend Timur Mindich and another businessman, Oleksandr Tsukerman. The former is alleged to be the ringleader of the scheme, overseeing the embezzlement of as much as $100 million.
“The most important thing is sentences for those people who are guilty,” Zelenskyy told Bloomberg Television. “The president of a country at war cannot have any friends.”
International Scrutiny and Political Fallout
Foreign Policy reports that "experts are closely watching how Zelensky handles the corruption investigation after he attempted to curtail the independence of Kyiv’s two anti-corruption agencies earlier this year. In July, parliamentarians signed a bill placing the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office under the direction of Kyiv’s prosecutor general, a politically appointed position. This triggered mass anti-government protests—the first in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022—and led to condemnation from foreign allies, including the European Union, which Kyiv seeks to join.
"Just last week, the European Commission released a report praising Ukraine for making 'limited progress' in tackling corruption during wartime. But that may not be enough to silence critics.
“Internally this scandal will be used to undermine unity and stability within the country,” said Oleksandr Merezhko, a lawmaker with Zelenskyy’s party. “Externally, our enemies will use it as an argument to stop aid to Ukraine.”
Imagine what the outcry would be if the scandal sees Zelenskyy and his allies making money from the sales of weapons intended to defend Ukraine. "Zelenskyy and Yermak might have to stuff all their money in suitcases, grab their wives or girlfriends, and take the first plane to Miami," said the source, laughing.
Arms Trafficking Allegations and International Ramifications
There is another potential juicy irony here. Sources report that the Hamas leadership may be willing to provide the U.S. and Special Envoy Witkoff with documentary evidence about how the Ukrainian arms bazaar works. Hamas and other terrorist organizations, as well as the drug cartels, are reported to have used the bazaar to obtain American weapons.
Meanwhile, there are already calls for a halt to aid to Ukraine, with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban demanding the EU halt all arms shipments to Kyiv. “This is the mess the people of Brussels want to pour European taxpayers’ money into,” Orban wrote on Facebook yesterday. “What is not shot at the front line is stolen by the war mafia. This is madness.”
Orban met with Trump at the White House last week.