Trade with death; Ukrainian officials also benefit from the dead body

According to RCO News Agency, US media outlined widespread corruption in the process of killing those killed in the Ukrainian war; Corruption in which local authorities receive bribes transfer the bodies of soldiers to specific companies, and even some “war heroes” are deprived of a decent funeral.

According to the Wall Street Journal, in the spring of 2008, as the war in Ukraine intensified, the manager of a funeral executive and a local government employee in a cemetery in Polta met with a cash deal to transfer the killed soldier’s bodies.

Prosecutors say the government official had agreed with the manager to transfer the contract to a refrigerator in Denipro in exchange for a quarter of the contract. According to them, in the same month, the manager of the soil in the same cemetery met with a government official and paid his share of the contract, about $ 2.

Although it seems simple at first glance, the case of corruption in the Poltawa Cemetery provides a bitter picture of the depth of corruption in the daily lives of the Ukrainian people; A corruption that does not abandon them even after death.

According to police, emergency forces and hospital staff are also regularly received from burial homes to provide information about deaths or imminent deaths. Even the bodies of the soldiers killed in the war with high social respect have also become a source of income for some corrupt officials.

According to officials, some burial houses give bribes to the authorities for transferring or burial contracts, and on the other hand, in official factors, the price of coffins and stones multiply and share their profits with the authorities.

“The war has created a favorable basis for the formation of new corruption; Corruptions that profiteers use people’s grief for personal gain. “

Estimates of the death toll since the beginning of the Ukrainian war in February, from 6,000 to 6,000. In the city of Poltawa in eastern Ukraine, Sergei Nachipornko’s local official referred to Alexander Borgart, the manager of one of the burial houses to move the bodies of some soldiers from the front lines.

According to the Wall Street Journal, corruption related to military burial is not limited to the city of Poltawa. Police in the city of Karifi Rai have recently arrested eight local officials and a burial house manager on charges of receiving bribes in the process of transferring the bodies of soldiers and other violations.

US media reported that corruption related to the burial of the soldiers killed has become a global phenomenon that is felt from Odessa to Zapurgia.

According to Ukraine’s laws, any family who has lost his child in the war can receive about $ 2 as a burial fee. Families who receive this amount have the right to choose the ceremony, but they cannot choose the organizer of the ceremony themselves.

Instead, local authorities bid bodies, and burial houses compete to obtain these contracts. According to three officials in Zapurgia, sometimes burial houses are bribed to win the tender.

One of the officials revealed that the tender conditions were set so that only one particular company could win; For example, the standard of coffins is set in such a way that only one company follows it.

However, a senior official in the burial department of Zapurgia has denied any corruption, saying, “Everything is transparent and public.” Although the government is paid by the government, many families are unhappy with the lack of choice for their children’s funerals.

Larissa Ouzcharhenko, the mother of an infantry soldier buried in Denipro in October, says he had no authority in choosing a burial house. The house chosen offered a cheap coffin, a simple wooden cross and a artificial handle.

While standing by his son’s tomb, he said, “Every parent must have the right to hold his child’s ceremony with respect.” He raised his only child alone, spent more than $ 5 out of his pocket to prepare a better cross and colored stone to cover the grave.

In the city of Odsa, the municipality also pays for the construction of local soldiers’ tombstones, but according to Micola Lisco, a senior police inspector, cases are being investigated by local authorities and dividends with local authorities.

The Ukrainian government has taken steps to reform the judiciary and counter corruption in recent years. President Walodimir Zelnski is well aware that the continued Western financial and military support depends on the government’s performance in the face of corruption.

However, according to Andrey Bilsky, a corruption researcher, since the beginning of the war, the number of corruption -related criminal convictions has increased by about 2 % and has reached 4 cases last year; However, the population of the country has declined by about one quarter due to migration and displacement.

The burial trade of war victims, whether military or civilian, remains one of the centers of corruption, and those who refuse to participate are usually eliminated from the competition.

Among them is the “House of Saro’s Funeral” in Rodinske, the last provider of burial services in the war -torn city of Pokovsk. The company’s manager says the collection has never paid bribes and lost half of its customers to the competitors they do.

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