The Ukrainian authorities in Kiev have embezzled “$400 million last year, at least,” of U.S. taxpayers money, according to veteran American journalist, Seymour Hersh, who recently grabbed headlines for his long-read article describing how it was the government of the United States that blew up the Nord Stream pipeline.

Now, a new Substack by Hersh reveals explosive details of how U.S., UK, and European tax payer cash is being used to line the pockets of Ukranian politicians, including President Zelensky and his allies.

The money, according to Hersh and his sources, has been used to buy luxury cars and fund ostentatious lifestyles. Allegedly, the director of America’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), William Burns, went so far as to present Zelensky personally with a list of “thirty-five generals and senior officials whose corruption was known to the CIA and others in the American government.”

Zelensky, claims Hersh, “publicly dismiss[ed] ten of the most ostentatious officials.”

More damning for the Ukrainian president, however, is the claim that, [t]he senior generals and government officials in Kiev were angry at what they saw as Zelensky’s greed, alleging that “he was taking a larger share of the skim money than was going to the generals.”

Embezzling Oil Money?

According to Seymour Hersh, U.S. cash has also been spent buying discount diesel from Russia itself, effectively helping fuel both sides of the conflict that continues to enrich the elite and the defense corporations:

The Ukraine government, headed by Volodymyr Zelensky, has been using American taxpayers’ funds to pay dearly for the vitally needed diesel fuel that is keeping the Ukrainian army on the move in its war with Russia. It is unknown how much the Zelensky government is paying per gallon for the fuel, but the Pentagon was paying as much as $400 per gallon to transport gasoline from a port in Pakistan, via truck or parachute, into Afghanistan during the decades-long American war there.

What also is unknown is that Zelensky has been buying the fuel from Russia, the country with which it, and Washington, are at war, and the Ukrainian president and many in his entourage have been skimming untold millions from the American dollars earmarked for diesel fuel payments. One estimate by analysts from the Central Intelligence Agency put the embezzled funds at $400 million last year, at least; another expert compared the level of corruption in Kiev as approaching that of the Afghan war, “although there will be no professional audit reports emerging from the Ukraine.”

“Zelensky’s been buying discount diesel from the Russians,” one knowledgeable American intelligence official told me. “And who’s paying for the gas and oil? We are. Putin and his oligarchs are making millions” on it.

Seymour Hersh says he was also told that, “[m]any government ministries in Kiev have been literally “competing”…to set up front companies for export contracts for weapons and ammunition with private arms dealers around the world… [m]any of those companies are in Poland and Czechia, but others are thought to exist in the Persian Gulf and Israel.”

Tensions.

Hersh continued to drop further bombshells in his piece entitled, “Trading With the Enemy.”

According to a U.S. intelligence official speaking incognito with Hersh, “[t]here is a total breakdown between the White House leadership and the intelligence community.”

This was caused by the government’s decision to, as Hersh previously claimed, destroy the North Stream Pipelines as well as the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, “mismanaging the broader conflict.”

According to the official, “[d]estroying the Nord Stream pipelines was never discussed, or even known in advance, by the community.” Instead, the move was “ordered by President Joe Biden.”

Responses.

The Biden government is yet to admit that it played a part in the Nord Stream Pipeline destruction and denied it from the moment the news broke.

This news will unlikely sit well with the American public, who are already questioning American involvement in the war.

According to Rasmussen Reports at the end of March this year, 50 percent of Americans believe the war has made America’s national security situation worse – up from 42% last September.”

This attitude may also be reflected in the halls of Congress as, according to Hersh, government is preparing for the war to be settled soon: “while the White House lacks clarity on its policy in Ukraine, the Pentagon is somewhat optimistically preparing for an end to the conflict.”