The partner of a prominent Estonian MP has been arrested in Austria over an alleged scheme to siphon off nearly €1 million in donations meant for Ukraine—triggering a scandal that has gripped Estonia and raised wider questions about wartime aid.
Austrian police detained Hennadi Vaskiv at the end of March, according to Ilmar Raag, who said the suspect is now expected to be extradited to Ukraine.
Vaskiv, a former deputy mayor of Lviv, stands accused of embezzling funds from Slava Ukraini—a high-profile NGO set up after Russia’s 2022 invasion that raised more than €6.5 million for Kyiv’s war effort.
In a dramatic twist, Raag suggested Vaskiv had been lured back to Europe from the United States with a fake job offer orchestrated by Ukrainian investigators.
The case has rocked Estonia because of its links to Johanna-Maria Lehtme, the charity’s founder and a former Liberal MP once celebrated as a national figure. Lehtme was named “Person of the Year” in early 2023 and elected to parliament weeks later—but her fall was just as swift.
Whistleblowers soon alleged that large sums of donated money had been diverted to a private construction firm tied to Vaskiv, with reports suggesting the company made hundreds of thousands of euros in profit from funds intended for frontline aid.
Lehtme resigned from parliament in May 2023 and is now under criminal investigation. Her current whereabouts are unknown, with suspicions she has fled Estonia.
The scandal destroyed Slava Ukraini, which has since shut down. Civil lawsuits filed in Estonia and Ukraine are now seeking more than €750,000 in damages, with any recovered funds pledged to Ukraine’s armed forces.
The affair has also cast a long shadow over Western support for Kyiv. Mounting evidence—from international audits to EU funding freezes—has pointed to persistent corruption risks, fuelling fears that wartime aid is not always reaching its intended destination.