It is tempting, even convenient, to believe that a nation at war cannot also be at war with itself. That courage on the battlefield somehow cleanses corruption in the boardroom. Ukraine, besieged and celebrated since 2022, has won the world’s sympathy, billions in Western aid, and a reputation for stoic resistance. But there remains a fact that no amount of PR polish can obscure: while Ukrainians have fought and died, a cadre of well-connected businessmen has quietly amassed extraordinary wealth under the fog of war.
Before the first Russian missile fell, Ukraine was already known as one of the most corrupt countries in Europe. Transparency International in 2015 ranked it 142 out of 175 globally. The Ukrainian state has long been a vehicle for private enrichment. What changed in 2022 was not the pattern, but the scale. The influx of foreign aid, loosened controls under martial law, and urgent demand for logistics, arms, fuel, and reconstruction created what economists might euphemistically call a “war economy.” In truth, it was a feeding frenzy.
The Neue ZĂĽrcher Zeitung (NZZ), a prominent Swiss newspaper, recently profiled five of the most successful participants in this new economic order: Andriy Stavnitser, Andriy Kobolev, Oleksandr Gerega, Andriy Kolodyuk, and Vasyl Khmelnytsky. None are household names in the West, and that is by design. They eschew the brashness of prewar oligarchs like Ihor Kolomoisky, favoring instead the discretion of men who understand that fortune built during wartime requires modesty, at least in public.
They have carved out fiefdoms in construction, logistics, energy, and agriculture, precisely the sectors supercharged by war. Companies like Epicenter K, co-owned by Gerega, now dominate construction supply chains, selling the cement and rebar used to rebuild what Russia bombs. Khmelnytsky has championed industrial parks and innovation hubs, all of which depend on foreign investment and generous public contracts. These men have found their moment. But one must ask: is it patriotism, or is it profit?
The answer is complicated. These businessmen have largely avoided the old playbook of Ukrainian oligarchy. They have not purchased TV stations or political parties. They have not funded private militias. This is not benevolence, but strategy. The reins, as the NZZ aptly notes, are held by President Zelensky. These oligarchs do not need to control the state directly, because they are now part of its strategic architecture. Their fortunes align with the state’s war aims—at least for now.
Consider the case of Andriy Kobolev, once lauded as a reformer for his leadership of Naftogaz. He fought corruption within Ukraine’s gas sector and helped win a landmark arbitration case against Gazprom. For this, he earned enemies. In 2021, Zelensky’s administration removed him. By 2023, he was indicted on charges critics described as political. That a former anti-corruption crusader is now under legal attack, while others closer to the regime prosper unscathed, should give pause.
This is not merely anecdotal. Corruption, as Freedom House reported in 2024, has metastasized within Ukraine’s defense sector. Food procurement scandals, inflated contracts, and bribery schemes have repeatedly made headlines. A Ministry of Defense deal that paid three times the market price for eggs, cabbage, and potatoes cost taxpayers millions. At least $17 million was skimmed. The beneficiaries were not isolated bad actors; they were insiders, bureaucrats, and businessmen exploiting the chaos.
Such episodes are not aberrations. They are expressions of a political economy in which power and profit are inseparable. Zelensky has sacked regional military recruitment heads, purged officials, and arrested judges. These actions are commendable. But they also resemble the periodic spasms of cleanup that dictators and strongmen have long used to signal virtue while consolidating power. One cannot fight systemic corruption with selective indignation.
And the system, let us be clear, is vast. Nearly 72 percent of Ukrainians say corruption is the second-greatest threat facing their country after war. That is not a fringe opinion. It is a cry of recognition. They see what is happening. They know that postwar reconstruction will dwarf even wartime profiteering. The World Bank estimates Ukraine will need $524 billion to rebuild. Who do we imagine will manage those funds? Who will win the contracts to pave the roads, mine the lithium, sow the wheat?
It will be the same men profiled by NZZ, and others like them. Gerega, Khmelnytsky, Kolodyuk, their empires are poised to expand. Land consolidation in agriculture has already favored large firms with political connections. Mineral extraction, especially for lithium and rare earths, is becoming the new frontier. American and European investors, drawn by profit and geopolitics, are preparing to pour capital into these ventures. Ukraine’s new oligarchs are not just surviving the war; they are preparing to dominate the peace.
President Zelensky, for his part, has embraced the narrative of reform. His government passed an anti-oligarch law. Kolomoisky, once his backer, now sits in jail. On paper, this is a rupture with the past. In practice, it is a rotation. The old guard is gone. The new one is in. The rules remain unchanged.
Western partners are watching. The EU has tied Ukraine’s candidacy to anti-corruption benchmarks. Washington demands transparency as a condition of aid. And yet, the reputational gap between the image of Ukraine as a courageous democracy and the reality of Ukraine as a patronage state grows wider by the day.
To say this is not to downplay the horror of Russian aggression. It is not to deny Ukrainian bravery. It is to insist that moral clarity in foreign affairs must extend to our allies as well as our enemies. The West cannot afford to conflate a just cause with just governance. To ignore corruption is to subsidize it. To excuse profiteering is to invite it.
Ukraine deserves to win its war. It also deserves a future in which the sacrifices of its soldiers are not cashed in by well-dressed men in air-conditioned offices. If the old oligarchs were swept away by the war, let not their successors be crowned by it.
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