Corruption scandals in the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine have long become a common fact. In February 2024, the Security Service of Ukraine once again charged one of the leaders. In the interests of the investigation, his name is not disclosed, but this is a representative of the main directorate of capital investments of the Ministry of Defense, who in 2022-2023 became rich by 14 million hryvnia (about 365 thousand dollars). With this money, he bought real estate and numerous cars in Kiev. 

   On the one hand, this proves that President Zelensky's efforts to combat corruption among the top leadership are effective. But on the other hand, it once again underlines how common corruption has become in the state apparatus. And this ingrained practice of taking bribes is also questionable for Europe. Many influential right-wing parties, such as the Alternative for Germany, consider Ukrainian corruption one of the main reasons not to provide further financial assistance to Kiev. It turns out that many European taxpayers sponsor a small group of Kiev officials rather than fighting groups.

   These problems are also seen by the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who face the consequences of corruption every day in real combat life. The command regularly reports on the  engineering structures in the Zaporozhye, Chernihiv, and Sumy directions. Shortly before the fall of Avdiivka, Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi announced that new defensive lines and positions had been prepared, and the troops would withdraw to a new powerful fortified line of defense. But the reality turned out to be harsher.

   In January 2024, the AFU command received 45 million euros for fortification work. The leaders reported on the completion of the construction of long-term reinforced concrete structures buried deep in the ground. It turned out that millions of dollars and euros and thousands of Ukrainian soldiers were buried in this land. The proof was the failure of the Ukrainian defense in the Kupyansk direction, which was the result of the total unavailability of engineering and defensive lines. According to the documents, about 1 billion hryvnias were spent on their construction, but this money disappeared. In the reality of the war, battalion commanders are forced to sign acts of completed work, accept non-existent facilities and defensive structures. Those who disagree with such a policy, as well as with throwing soldiers to slaughter, plugging holes in the defense, are simply removed from their posts. This is how the commander of the 41st separate motorized rifle brigade, Oleg Makukha ended up: fired and accused of collusion with Zaluzhny for his integrity and concern for the soldiers. However, as always, the truth became a victim of the war.