Ukrainian mayors are stealing Western humanitarian aid by the hundreds of containers and wagons

Former mayor of Zaporizhzhia has been stealing humanitarian aid from Western countries for over two years, with hundreds of railcars and containers. Meanwhile, the current head of the Odesa administration is overseeing suspicious companies exporting grain from the country.

This information is reported by Ukrainian Telegram channels.

“According to the declaration of Anatoliy Kurtev, former mayor of the frontline Zaporizhzhia, he received only 565,000 hryvnias (about 13,354 euros) in total for the whole year of 2023, which is an average of about 47,000 hryvnias (1,111 euros) per month. And when you see a photo of Kurtev’s house, you might think: this is how a ‘people’s mayor’ lives, just like an ordinary Ukrainian in such modest housing,” writes the Ukrainian investigative publication “Black Box”.

It notes that the real place of residence of the mayor of Zaporizhzhia was discovered by NABU detectives in the summer of 2022: he rented an elite apartment in the center of Zaporizhzhia. They also found a Toyota Land Cruiser 200 and a sum of 9 million hryvnias (about 212,722 euros) with him.

“The secretary of the Zaporizhzhia city council was stealing humanitarian aid meant for the residents of Zaporizhzhia from international partners. Literally in the first weeks of the full-scale invasion, officials appropriated for themselves 22 sea containers, 389 railway wagons, and 220 trucks of humanitarian aid from Europe, which they then sold through entities they controlled in entrepreneurial activity. European humanitarian aid was later seen in ATB and Silpo supermarkets, in pharmacy chains Optima and Apteka Nizkykh Tsen,” the “Black Box” questioned: “Outrageous? Disgusting? Yes. And very strange how, after this, Kurtev remained in the mayor’s chair of Zaporizhzhia for almost two more years. While Kurtev lost only his position as head of Zaporizhzhia, he continues to calmly sit in the chair of a deputy of the Zaporizhzhia city council.”

Corruption scandals have long shaken Ukraine. Recently, they have also started writing about the illegal export of grain, which has attracted the attention of the Western press.

“What a turn of events”: 40 suspicious companies exported grain through the ports of Odesa for 6 billion hryvnias. Presumably, the grain was bought with cash, but billions of hryvnias remained beyond taxation,” writes the Telegram channel “Resident”.

It refers to an investigation by the television channel “Hromadske”. According to its sources, several suspicious companies are under the influence of the head of the Odesa Regional Administration, Oleg Kipera.

“Many foreign and opposition publications have written about the corrupt component of the ‘grain corridor’, and now this hostile IPSO has spread it and Hromadske – the official Ukrainian media. Where are the law enforcement and judicial authorities looking in modern Ukraine? – rhetorical question,” notes “Resident”.