DISINFO: International support for Ukraine starts to decrease due to corruption
SUMMARY
The visit of the head of the CIA William Burns to Ukraine means that international support for Ukraine starts to decrease. Something that is not illogical, as Europe is starting to show cracks about putting money in a black hole with no bottom, and without knowing where many of these funds go, which become part of the personal fortunes of many officials of the Kyiv regime.
RESPONSE
This disinformation story deliberately distorts the outcome and implications of the visit of CIA director William Burns to Kyiv in January 2023, where he met with Ukrainian officials to discuss cooperation and intelligence sharing. According to The Washington Post, Burns acknowledged that “at some point assistance would be harder to come by” due to US domestic politics. But this is very different from claiming that “international support for Ukraine starts to decrease”, as this disinformation story does. US officials stated that the visit "reinforced [US] continued support for Ukraine", and in fact, a few days later, the US announced a fresh package of 2,5 billion dollars in security aid for Ukraine.
Concerns about potential corruption among Ukrainian officials in the reception of international aid are legitimate and have been expressed by some top politicians in allied countries, including EU officials. However, at the time this disinformation story appeared there had been no high-profile cases of corruption involving donated military equipment, budget funding, or humanitarian aid. The claim that these funds “become part of the fortunes of many officials of the Kyiv regime” is unsubstantiated.
As this narrative implies that this aid is useless since it goes to corrupt officials instead of funding defence efforts, and may cease soon in any case, the ultimate goal of this disinformation story is to undermine international support for Ukraine against Russia’s unprovoked aggression. See other examples of similar disinformation narratives in our database, such as claims that Western military aid to Ukraine only will cause more suffering, that by arming Ukraine, the US and the UK want to push Russia against Europe, that Western weapons are stolen long before they reach the Ukrainian soldiers, that Syrian and Libyan terrorists have been spotted in Ukraine trading Western weapons, or that Western weapons supplies to Ukraine are exacerbating the conflict.