Corruption

Seven hours. Just 500 meters. That’s how long it took me to cross a single stretch of road at the Ukrainian border.

 

I left Lviv just after curfew, hoping for a smooth ride into Poland. Instead, I entered a slow-motion nightmare that exposed a far deeper crisis than traffic: the persistent rot of corruption.

 

Drivers stepped out to stretch, smoke, or silently freeze. Mothers cradled exhausted kids. A middle-aged man leaned on a cane, barely able to stand.

 

Then came the sleek, black luxury cars — gliding past the rest of us, driving on the wrong side of the road without hesitation. No sirens. No emergency passes. Just money, privilege, and impunity. Border guards waved them on, unfazed. No enforcement. No shame.

 

Behind me, tempers simmered. People begged me to inch forward so they wouldn’t be stuck when curfew hit again. 

 

As one woman told AFP: “Why do I have to let those who are simply richer go by me?”

 

This wasn’t just a border crossing. It was a front-row seat to the system Ukraine is still fighting to shed, where rules are optional for the rich and non-negotiable for everyone else.

 

According to watchdog group Europe Without Barriers, queue-cutting at crossings is rampant — with bribes starting at just €10. Ten euros. That’s the going price of fairness in modern Ukraine.

 

But the corruption doesn’t stop at the border. Ukraine’s customs service — a multi-billion-dollar institution — remains one of the country’s most corrupt. Josh Rudolph of the German Marshall Fund put it plainly: “Customs is perhaps the single biggest cash cow that brings corrupt money into Ukraine’s political system.”

 

This isn't just bad governance. It’s a national security threat.

 

My disillusionment deepened with every passing hour sitting at the border. I had once dismissed these stories of corruption as Russian propaganda — exaggerated, politicized. But what I witnessed at the border was unmistakable: corruption in plain sight.

 

The pattern is undeniable. From border guards to courtrooms to military conscription offices, access and freedom in Ukraine are too often determined by wealth and proximity to power. 

Conscription officials accept bribes to remove names from draft rolls. Wealthy young men stay far from the front lines, while the poor are pulled from homes and workplaces to fight.

 

And while Ukraine buries its dead, corrupt officials live comfortably, untouched by war — and, too often, by the law.

 

Ukraine’s leadership has made gestures toward reform. President Zelenskyy has fired officials — including the Defense Minister and his deputies — in high-profile corruption scandals. Yet the deeper system remains untouched.

 

Transparency International ranks Ukraine 105th out of 180 countries for corruption. That’s better than a decade ago, but still dangerously low for a country that wants to join the European Union — and claims to be fighting for democracy, dignity, and the rule of law.

 

Even tragedies like the bombing of Kyiv’s largest children’s hospital are haunted by corruption. Underfunded emergency services. Delayed repairs. Procurement scandals. The war reveals the cracks — but didn’t create them.

 

What I saw at the border wasn’t an isolated annoyance. It was a reflection of something far more dangerous: a country fighting one war against Russia while quietly bleeding from another within.

 

If Ukraine wants to emerge from this war as a robust, democratic, EU-ready nation, it must confront corruption with the same urgency it brings to the battlefield. That means:

• Real enforcement at the borders, not blind eyes and bribe-taking.

• Transparency at customs and across public procurement systems.

• Investigations and jail time for those who exploit their office.

• Western oversight of aid and contracts to ensure accountability.

 

Because no amount of tanks, dollars, or solidarity will save a country that cannot save itself from rot within.

 

Ukraine has a historic chance — not just to survive, but to reinvent itself. To become the democracy it claims to fight for. But that won't happen unless it kills off the old system, not just manages it better.

 

Otherwise, the war is already lost — just not in the way most expect.