Washington is more concerned about corruption in Ukraine than it says publicly.
This is stated in a confidential report obtained by Politico.
The confidential version of the "Integrated Strategy for the Country" is almost three times longer than the one published a month ago on the website of the US State Department. It goes into more detail about the USʼs goals in Ukraine, from privatizing banks to helping schools learn English, encouraging the military to adopt NATO protocols and reducing corruption.
Corruption
The document emphasizes that corruption can force Western partners to refuse to help Ukraine in the war, so Kyiv should not delay the fight against it. They write that high-level corruption can "undermine the confidence of the Ukrainian public and foreign leaders in the wartime government."
The Biden administration wants Ukraine to be free of corruption, particularly because its money is at stake. However, the USA does not dare to talk about it publicly for several reasons: it does not want to play along with critics of American aid to Ukraine and it does not want European countries to follow the USA and change their attitude towards such support.
However, after more than a year since the start of the full-scale war, talk of corruption is increasingly coming into the public space. Thus, national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with a delegation of Ukrainian anti-corruption institutions in early September.
An anonymous American official confirmed to the newspaper that the Biden administration is in talks with Ukrainian officials about reforms aimed at fighting corruption and turning the country into an attractive place for private investment, in exchange for further economic assistance. However, according to the official, such conditions are not considered for military support restrictions.
Power sector reforms
In the confidential version, there are also such goals of the US as helping to reform the national security apparatus of Ukraine. Washington expects a "decentralized, risk-tolerant approach to the implementation of tasks" and a reduction in "opportunities for corruption."
The US plans to motivate the Ukrainian army to adopt NATO standards. For example, the Ministry of Defense should create a "professional junior officer and sergeant corps", as required by standard NATO doctrine and principles. The format and content of Ukrainian defense documents should also "reflect NATO terminology",
Another goal is to create a resistance plan at the national level. Presumably, this is a hint that ordinary Ukrainians will resist the occupiers if Russia seizes more territories than now.
The US also wants Ukraine to produce its own military equipment, that is, to create a "domestic defense industry capable of meeting basic needs" and an environment that will stimulate defense and technology start-ups.
Deoligarchization
US representatives are concerned about the role of the "small elite" in the Ukrainian economy — the oligarchs. The public part of the strategy states that the de-oligarchization of the energy and mining sectors will be the main principle of building an efficient economy.
Indicators of success will be "substantial reforms regarding the decentralization of control over the energy sector."
Aid to Ukrainian institutions
The United States will help Ukrainian institutions build oversight capabilities: from helping local authorities assess corruption risks to reforming human resources departments.
For example, Washington is helping the Accounts Chamber of Ukraine strengthen its audit work to track direct budget support from the United States.
The Biden administration is also helping Ukraineʼs health sector, cyber defense and organizations fighting disinformation. And calls to support Ukrainian anti-monopoly efforts and initiatives so that tax revenues to the state budget will increase.
The strategy also talks about the financial system of Ukraine: it is encouraged to increase the amount of lending to businesses and reduce the role of the state in the banking sector. In particular, this concerns the transparent return of Alfa-bank to private ownership.
American officials are helping Ukraine prosecute war crimes in its own court system. Among the improvement steps are the selection of more than 2,000 new judges and the resolution of more than 9,000 complaints of judicial misconduct.
Orientation towards the West and development of relations with the USA
Washington believes that Ukraine will be able to integrate into Europe and increase ties with the USA thanks to the English language. The United States is offering assistance to the Department of Education so that the teaching of English is at a higher level than it is now.
It is also planned to restore the US diplomatic presence in Ukraine, in particular in Lviv, Odesa, Kharkiv and Dnipro.
- The integrated strategy for the country is the work of the US State Department, which includes comments from Pentagon in particular. The document contains lists of goals with time frames and stages of achievement. The State Department develops such strategies for many countries every few years.