The latest issue of the British newspaper The Guardian published a scandalous article about corruption in Ukraine. It's titled "Welcome to Ukraine, the most corrupt country in Europe." Obozrevatel is publishing a translation of the article.
As the conflict with Russia rages in the east of the country, life for most Ukrainians is blighted by corruption, so severe that even medical institutions are infected. Can anyone cleanse the country of corruption?
The National Cancer Institute of Ukraine occupies three six-story gray buildings in a residential area on the outskirts of Kyiv.
When Soviet builders finished cladding the facade, they wrote the date 1968 on it. The buildings' appearance suggests that their maintenance has been questionable since then.
However, business at the institute has always been lively, and is becoming increasingly lively.
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Half of men and a fifth of women in Ukraine smoke. Vodka is the national drink, and salo (lard) is a traditional snack.
Due to the Chernobyl disaster, thyroid cancer is very common among the generation born in the 80s, with the incidence among children increasing tenfold.
The low prevalence of family doctors means that diseases such as breast, prostate and colon cancer go undetected for months.
Survival rates for these cancers are among the worst in Europe.
In 2008, Professor Igor Shchepotin, an experienced surgeon of Ukrainian origin, stated in an interview that the number of new cancer diagnoses would continue to grow annually: from 165000 cases to 200,000 in 2020.
That same year, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko chose Shchepotin for a new war on cancer.
Shepotin took over the cancer institute, the country's leading cancer hospital and its main research institution, and was given broad powers to fix Ukraine's healthcare system, including budgetary independence from the Health Ministry so he could buy his own drugs and equipment.
In the UK, he would be known as the "oncologist czar"; in Ukraine, he's called the "chief oncologist." And he was effective, according to the institute's own assessment.
In April, the institute published a report on its work, stating: "Under the leadership of Professor Shepotin, thanks to new approaches, concepts, and technologies, new principles of treatment for cancer patients were introduced, a significant portion of whom were returned to a fully active life."
Inside, the institute looks no more modern than on the outside: surgeons in white coats discussing various issues, nurses fussing around, accepting armfuls of folders.
In the hallways, patients sit on movie theater-style seats while their relatives try to get the doctors' attention.
Old women dressed in dresses with green bushes mop the floors with disinfectant, giving the building a chemical smell that clings to clothes and lingers long after leaving the hospital.
It may seem that patients can be helped here.
But according to three surgeons who work there, a former health minister, patients and anti-corruption activists, things are not so simple.
They claim that the hospital, like government bodies throughout Ukraine, is rife with corruption.
And despite widespread public anger over the country's corruption problems, which have sparked two revolutions in a decade, no one is trying to do anything about it.
According to Konstantin Sidorenko, a consultant anesthesiologist at the facility, the funds are there, but they are not reaching such vital parts of the hospital as the intensive care unit.
"For some reason, the money isn't reaching the most important places, like intensive care. So, we have to raise it ourselves," he noted.
The phrase “earn it all yourself,” he explained, is a replacement for the expression “take bribes.”
Sidorenko immediately made it clear that this was not something he liked to do.
He leads a team of doctors working in intensive care, so he is responsible for the most vulnerable patients.
We were on the sixth floor in his office, which was about the size of a typical bathroom.
Sidorenko, who had graying, wavy hair and a friendly, open face, reached into the pocket of his white coat and pulled out a small cubic object.
It contains a breathing oxygen sensor, a device that provides breathing to patients who cannot breathe on their own.
According to the doctor, each of these devices costs about 4000 hryvnias, and at least once a year, each of the 10 such devices requires a sensor replacement: 40,000 hryvnias in total.
And this is only a small part of the funds he needs to maintain the equipment in the department.
According to him, the total amount exceeds 700000 hryvnia per year.
He noted that over the past two years, the institute had not provided him with sufficient funds for his care, despite his repeated requests during clinical meetings.
"I have equipment worth millions, and I need to maintain it because if it breaks, my patients will die. I need to maintain it, but where will I get the money?" the doctor asks.
In other words, he had to choose: be honest and a bad doctor, or take bribes and be a good doctor.
It's humiliating, but there's only one answer. "My doctors understand, and my patients pay," Sidorenko said.
Taking a stack of envelopes from the locker, Sidorenko showed that they contained different amounts of money.
He explained that almost all of his doctors collect money from patients and then deposit it with him for safekeeping. The money is then used to repair the machines that keep patients alive.
These are the realities of being a doctor in Ukraine, he said.
The doctor's high qualifications include him on the committee that decides what equipment the institute should purchase.
He said he witnessed the hospital systematically overpay for the equipment it purchased.
Moreover, according to him, the institute once overpaid for respirators by €130000. This amount could have covered the cost of replacing the sensors in the equipment for 40 years.
Sidorenko has only one explanation for why the hospital is overpaying for equipment: some managers are making secret deals with suppliers to defraud the state budget, and then dividing the remaining money among themselves.
It should be noted that with 23 years of experience, Sidorenko earns only €300 per month,
This amount is barely enough to feed her four small children, let alone pay the numerous small bribes – to teachers, traffic police, plumbers, tax authorities – that are part of everyday life in Ukraine.
Kyiv has a large opera house, cathedrals, a chain of shops, wide central avenues, a metro – everything necessary to make the city look European.
But it resembles a modern European capital in the same way that a cancer institute resembles a hospital.
According to Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, Ukraine ranks 142nd in the world, tied with Uganda.
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