While “the paper of record” got around to covering Ukraine’s corruption scandal, key leaders in Europe embraced the nation’s leader once more as he took heat from President Donald Trump.
Last week, the chief executive dispatched Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, along with son-in-law and former senior adviser Jared Kushner, to meet with officials in Ukraine as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss Trump’s peace plan. Monday, following the president’s expression of being “disappointed” with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Eastern European leader was welcomed at 10 Downing Street for a show of support from the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.
“We stand with Ukraine,” U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said while hosting Zelenskyy with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. “If there is to be a ceasefire, then it needs to be a just and lasting ceasefire; that is why it is so important we repeatedly set out the principle that matters about Ukraine are for Ukraine.”
“We stand here to support you in the conflict and support you in negotiations,” added the prime minister at the same time a corruption scandal in Ukraine saw the resignation of Zelenskyy’s Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak while agencies in the country probe whether or not Zelenskyy ally Timur Mindich led a group responsible for laundering around $100 million from the Ukrainian energy sector.
Top Zelensky aide resigns amid massive, burgeoning corruption scandal https://t.co/3m6m15eYWv via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) November 29, 2025
Speaking with The Hill, a French official stated, “The meeting between the leaders in the E3 format and President Zelensky made it possible to continue joint work on the U.S. plan, with a view to complementing it with European contributions, in close coordination with Ukraine.”
“The work is currently being finalized by the NSAs ahead of exchanges between Europeans, Americans, and Ukrainians, which should help strengthen convergence in the coming days,” added the official who said work will be “deepened to provide Ukraine with robust security guarantees, as well as to prepare measures for Ukraine’s reconstruction.”
“I’m skeptical about some of the details which we are seeing in the documents coming from [the] U.S. side. That’s why we are here,” said Merz to reporters as he argued the “destiny of this country is the destiny of Europe.”
Ukraine’s fate is Europe’s fate. We’re here to see how we can step up our efforts. No one should have any doubt: our support will not falter. pic.twitter.com/xBZ1phFSZX
— Bundeskanzler Friedrich Merz (@bundeskanzler) December 8, 2025
Their remarks came a day after Trump told reporters, “I have to say that I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelenskyy hasn’t yet read the proposal, that was as of a few hours ago.”
“His people love it, but he hasn’t,” added the president. “Russia’s fine with it.”
Trump: I am bit disappointed that President Zelenskyy has not read the proposal. His people love it. Russia is fine with it. pic.twitter.com/3yD3JnWXuC
— Acyn (@Acyn) December 7, 2025
Meanwhile, on the heels of reporting on former President Joe Biden’s border crisis well after the fact, the New York Times was called out for pulling another “It can now be said” as it saw fit to cover the corruption scandal in Ukraine.
“To protect their money, the United States and European nations insisted on oversight,” argued the Times. “They required Ukraine to allow groups of outside experts, known as supervisory boards, to monitor spending, appoint executives, and prevent corruption. Over the past four years, a New York Times investigation found, the Ukrainian government systematically sabotaged that oversight, allowing graft to flourish.”
Reactions were hardly charitable to the Gray Lady as suspicion of even greater corruption remained.
From the annals of “It can now be said”: NYT is reporting that Zelensky’s inner circle laundered over $100 million. Kiev “rewrote company charters to limit oversight, keeping the gov in control and allowing hundreds of millions of $$ to be spent without outsiders poking around.” pic.twitter.com/zp7yHYEzlG
— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) December 8, 2025
@nytimes thinks if they cover this story at $100 million in corruption uncovered they can move on before it gets to the billions we all know still is outstanding.
— Lorenzo Von Matterhorn (@Rod_Red_Hot) December 9, 2025
They are minimizing and explaining the fraud as a mistake/bad governance not the intentional and massive fraud that it was and is
— Citizen Sane (@CitizenSane9) December 9, 2025
As usual, they’re off by a zero or two.
The two kleptocracies deserve each other.
Millions needlessly and senselessly killed and maimed.
— FatScribe (@FatScribe) December 8, 2025
Remember when Republicans called for an audit of the tens of billions of dollars the Biden admin was sending to Ukraine as a blank check and the media acted like such a suggestion was ludicrous??
They have no credibility.
— RebelMajority (@RebelMajority) December 8, 2025
So the NYT gets around to it now—in 2025? Most astute observers knew this years ago.
— LegalSpeak (@LegalSpeak1) December 9, 2025
We’re getting a trend of these at NYT lately…
— Christopher Kawasaki (@Ckawasaki) December 8, 2025
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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