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Corruption in the Ukrainian government by figures appointed by President Volodymyr Zelensky has exploded under the cover of the war against Russia and Vladimir Putin, prominent Ukrainian military, political and legal leader Ihor Lapin reveals on this episode of Conversations That Matter with The New American magazine’s Alex Newman. The Ukrainian people were fooled and deceived into trusting these “new” faces, the former special forces battalion commander and member of Parliament added. While many Ukrainians are sacrificing their lives for the nation’s independence, others from the top of the power structure to the bottom are taking the chance to enrich themselves. “All these small corruption streams lead to the top of the government,” he said. Even the newly elected head of the anti-corruption bureau, put in with help from Western powers, has a history of corruption, Lapin explained. These Western powers, which Ukrainians hoped would help stop this, ended up “slapping our civil society in the face with this,” he said. Lamenting the betrayal under the Budapest Memorandum under which Bill Clinton and Russia convinced Ukraine to give up its nuclear arsenal, Lapin suggested that allowing Ukraine to join NATO was the only way it could remain safe from Russian aggression today and in the future. Of course, Putin has indicated that having its neighbor join NATO would be out of the question. Lapin also expressed a desire to denuclearize Russia and destroy Putin’s ability to harm his neighbors militarily. And he thanked the United States for its ongoing support of the war effort.
