The Big Business of War–a Clandestine Arms Market in Ukraine

WAR RACKET--CATASTROPHE CAPITALISM, 2 Oct 2023

Manlio Dinucci | Global Research – TRANSCEND Media Service

Zelensky at the UNGA – Image: Qatar News Agency

25 Sep 2023 – After his show at the United Nations, where he declared that “Russian aggression could expand beyond Ukraine,” Zelensky asked for more than a billion dollars from the US Congress.

The Congress has so far allocated 43 billion in “assistance to the security of Ukraine”, i.e. for direct military purposes. Together with other funding, officially given for humanitarian purposes, which in reality serves the war, the actual amount provided by Washington to Kyiv well exceeds 70 billion dollars. Now the White House has requested an additional $24 billion from Congress for Ukraine. Added to these are over 30 billion given to Kyiv by the European Union, plus tens of billions provided by Great Britain, Germany, Japan, Canada, Poland, Holland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, France, and Italy.

This enormous flow of public money, coming from citizens’ pockets, fuels what the New York Times calls “a clandestine arms market” in Ukraine. Billions of dollars ended up in the pockets of high-ranking officials in Kyiv, so much so that the government had to fire the Minister of Defence and all six deputy Defence Ministers for corruption. These corrupt people are actually the scapegoats of a much larger crime. President Zelensky himself has substantial shares (formally transferred to one of his partners) in three companies established in tax havens and has purchased luxury villas in various parts of the world (most recently in Egypt) for the sum of tens of millions of dollars.

The enormous military supplies that Ukraine receives from the United States and European powers are not a gift but given on credit. Ukraine has thus accumulated such a foreign debt that it would take centuries to repay it. This debt will grow further with the “reconstruction” that Zelensky has placed in the hands of the American BlackRock, the largest investment company in the world.

“The investment in Ukraine is paying off a lot for us –US Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said – We have united NATO. We have helped restore faith and trust in American leadership – moral and military. All without a single American soldier being injured or killed.”

“The fundamental reason for continuing to help Ukraine – declares Mitch McConnell, leader of the Republican Group in the US Senate – is cold, hard, and concrete American interests”.

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Manlio Dinucci is a research associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization, a geographer, and geopolitical scientist. In the 1980s, he directed the magazine Lotta per la Pace (born from “Appeal against the installation of nuclear missiles in Italy”) and was Executive Director for Italy of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, winner of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize. His latest books are L’arte della guerra/Annali della strategia USA/NATO 1990-2016, Zambon 2016; and Guerra Nucleare Il Giorno Prima, Zambon Editore; 2017.

This article was originally published in Italian on Il Manifesto.

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