Useful Idiots: Western Profiteers of the Ukraine War

The Ukraine Files · Special File

By William Aaron Turner, President of Infinitum Corporation · The Ukraine Files: Full Series

Introduction: The Greatest Show on Earth

There is a particular species of human being that has evolved over the past three years to thrive in the ecosystem of the Ukraine war. It is not the Ukrainian soldier in a trench. It is the Western politician, the retired general, the cable news pundit, the arms company executive, and the intelligence official who has discovered that war—especially a war you don't have to fight in—is the most reliable business model since the invention of the gunpowder monopoly.

This paper is about them. The Useful Idiots. The people who tell you they are defending democracy while their stock portfolio quietly thanks them for it. The people who appear on CNN to explain why we must send more weapons, without mentioning that their consulting firm represents the company that makes those weapons. The people who take a $1 million "donation" from the largest shareholder of a defense company that supplies drones to Ukraine, then go on to argue that Ukraine should fight to the last Ukrainian. The people who rotate through the Pentagon, the defense industry, and back again like a revolving door that never stops spinning.

The term "useful idiot" was originally a Soviet phrase for Western intellectuals who could be relied upon to defend the USSR without being paid. The modern version is more sophisticated. These useful idiots are paid. Very well paid. They are not useful because they are stupid—they are useful because they are compromised. And they are compromised because they have made a calculation: the war in Ukraine is not a tragedy to be ended. It is a cash flow to be managed.

Let us be clear about what we are documenting here. This is not a conspiracy theory. This is not propaganda from any side. This is, for the most part, information that has been published in The Guardian, The Intercept, Bloomberg, The Lever, Responsible Statecraft, and other Western outlets. It is information that is publicly available, though scattered across different sources and often buried beneath the avalanche of war coverage that treats every weapons package as a moral victory rather than a financial transaction. We are simply connecting the dots that the mainstream media prefers to leave unconnected.

The dots form a picture. It is not a pretty picture. It is a picture of a system in which the people who decide whether a war continues are the same people who profit from its continuation. It is a picture of a democracy in which the electorate is told that there is no alternative to war, while the elected officials who tell them this are personally invested in the war's perpetuation. It is a picture of a "rules-based international order" in which the rules are written by the people who own the casinos.

And it is a picture that becomes even more disturbing when you realize that the arms being sent to Ukraine do not always stay in Ukraine. They leak. They are stolen. They are sold on black markets. They end up in the hands of criminal gangs, drug cartels, and terrorist organizations. The people who facilitated this leakage—the intelligence agencies, the defense contractors, the politicians who waved through the weapons packages—are the same people who now tell us that we must send more weapons to prevent the weapons from falling into the wrong hands. It is a perfect circle of profit and chaos.

I will not pretend to be neutral. Neutrality in the face of profiteering from war is complicity. But it will be fair. It will cite its sources. It will distinguish between speculation and documented fact. I will use humor because dark humor is the only appropriate response to a situation in which the leaders of the free world have discovered that death is a growth industry.

Fuck it, let us begin. Let us meet the Useful Idiots.

Part One: The Congress That Trades While Rome Burns

The Congressional Stock Portfolio

In the United States, there is a law called the STOCK Act, passed in 2012, which was supposed to prevent members of Congress from trading on insider information. The law requires members to disclose their stock trades within 45 days. It does not require them to stop trading. It does not require them to divest from companies that their committees oversee. It does not require them to explain why they bought Lockheed Martin stock two days before the full-scale war in Ukraine began.

The result is a Congress that looks less like a legislature and more like a hedge fund with a side gig like driving for Uber. According to data compiled by the Quincy Institute, in 2024, 50 members of Congress traded between $24 million and $113 million worth of Pentagon contractor stocks while simultaneously writing the military budgets that determined which weapons companies received multi-billion-dollar contracts. This is not a conflict of interest. This is a conflict of interest on steroids or on cocaine perhaps, wearing a flag pin and giving speeches about freedom.

The phenomenon is bipartisan. It is not confined to one party or one ideology. It is a structural feature of a political system in which public service and private profit have become indistinguishable. The people who vote on whether to send Javelins to Ukraine are the same people who own stock in the companies that make Javelins. The people who decide how much money the Pentagon gets are the same people who benefit when the Pentagon spends that money. It is a system that would have made the founders—who were themselves no strangers to profiting from war—blush with embarrassment.

Marjorie Taylor Greene and the Lockheed Martin Timing

Let us start with the most obvious example, the one that even the mainstream media could not ignore. On February 22, 2022—two days before the full-scale war in Ukraine began—Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia purchased between $1,001 and $15,000 worth of stock in Lockheed Martin, the world's largest defense contractor and the maker of the Javelin anti-tank missiles that would soon become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance.

Two days later, Greene tweeted: "War is big business to our leaders". She was, in her own way, telling the truth. She had just demonstrated it. The congresswoman who would later become one of the loudest opponents of aid to Ukraine had, at the very moment of maximum geopolitical uncertainty, positioned herself to profit from the war she would later claim to oppose. It was a masterclass in the art of having it both ways: criticize the war publicly while quietly betting on its continuation.The American way…

Greene's spokesperson later claimed that the purchase was made by her husband, not by the congresswoman herself, and that she was not aware of the timing. This is the congressional equivalent of "the dog ate my homework." The timing was not just suspicious. It was clairvoyant. The war had been predicted for weeks, but the exact date was not publicly known. Greene's purchase, made through a joint account, suggested that someone in her household had access to information that the rest of the world did not. Whether it was insider trading in the legal sense is a question for the SEC. Whether it was corrupt is a question for anyone with eyes.

The Broader Pattern: 47 Members and Their Spouses

Greene is not an outlier. She is a particularly colorful example of a systemic problem. According to reporting by Business Insider and other outlets, at least 19 members of Congress or their spouses owned stock in the companies that make Stinger and Javelin missiles—Raytheon and Lockheed Martin—at the time the full-scale war began. A separate analysis found that 47 members of Congress and their spouses held defense stocks worth a combined $6.7 million.

The numbers are staggering, but the individual stories are what make the pattern come alive. Consider Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Between 2023 and 2026, Mullin bought and sold over $24 million worth of stocks, including defense stocks like L3Harris Technologies and RTX Corp (formerly Raytheon), as well as oil stocks like Chevron and ConocoPhillips. Mullin has been flagged for buying defense and oil stocks ahead of geopolitical conflicts, a pattern that suggests either extraordinary foresight or extraordinary access to information. On December 29, 2025, disclosures show Mullin purchased between $15,000 and $50,000 worth of shares in each of Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and RTX.

Mullin also introduced a bill that would allow U.S. citizens to volunteer to fight on behalf of Ukraine. It is not clear whether he intended to volunteer himself. It is clear that he intended to profit from the war, whether or not he fought in it.

Then there is Representative Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, who chairs the Republican Study Committee's Budget and Spending Task Force. Hern has made over 400 stock trades in recent years, including multiple trades in defense contractor stocks. He and his wife invested up to $15,000 in both Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies. Hern bought RTX stock in six separate trades, investing $15,000 each time, with the most recent trade taking place on July 15. Hern has called for increasing the military's budget by 5%, a position that aligns neatly with his personal investment portfolio. When Hern votes to increase defense spending, he is not just voting for the national interest. He is voting for his own interest. The two have become indistinguishable.

Representative Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, purchased up to $15,000 of Northrop Grumman stock on September 26, 2023. By April 2024, that investment had risen 8.44%. He also invested in RTX and other defense stocks during the same period, with gains of 16% and 28% reported on some positions. He traded at least $22 million worth of stock of the top 100 Pentagon contractors, including Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, and IBM, while sitting on the Intelligence Committee. As a member of the Intelligence Committee, Gottheimer has access to classified briefings on global threats that the general public does not. His personal stock portfolio has benefited from the geopolitical tensions those briefings concern.

Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon purchased 31 different stocks on February 24, 2022—the day the full-scale war in Ukraine began—including $15,000 worth of Raytheon stock. While other members of Congress were issuing statements condemning the war, Blumenauer was diversifying his portfolio. His office later claimed the purchases were "a mistake" due to a "miscommunication" with his financial advisor. Raytheon makes the Stinger and Javelin missiles that were being rushed to Ukraine.

Lindsey Graham: The Senator from Boeing

If there is a single senator who embodies the military-industrial-congressional complex, it was Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Graham has been one of the loudest voices calling for endless funding for the war in Ukraine, a position that has made him a hero to some and a warmonger to others. What is less well known is that Graham has received substantial financial support from the very companies that benefit from his hawkishness.

According to data compiled by "Military Chronicle," Boeing Co. donated approximately $55,000 to Graham through its Political Action Committee between 2019 and 2024. Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman also contributed to his campaigns. The Department of Defense itself donated $50,000 to Graham during the same period. Between 2015 and 2016, Graham received approximately $760,000 from defense corporations for supporting increased military spending outside the normal budget process.

OpenSecrets data shows that the defense sector gave Graham $1.1 million between 1993 and 2024. This is not a man who is independently wealthy and can afford to ignore the interests of his donors. This is a man whose political career has been subsidized by the arms industry. When Graham says that Ukraine must fight "to the last Ukrainian," he is not just expressing a geopolitical opinion. He is expressing the business model of his financial backers.

Graham's critics have noted the irony: "Every time Graham talks about deterrence or freedom abroad, a defense stock price ticks up". The senator from South Carolina has become, in effect, a human stock ticker for the defense industry. His speeches are not just rhetoric. They are earnings calls.

The Ethics of Congressional Trading

The defenders of congressional stock trading argue that members of Congress should not be prohibited from owning stocks because that would make it harder for ordinary people to serve. This argument might have some merit if members of Congress were required to put their holdings in blind trusts. They are not. They are required to disclose their trades, but they are not required to stop trading. The disclosure is supposed to create transparency. In practice, it creates a roadmap for corruption.

The problem is not just that members of Congress trade defense stocks. It is that they trade defense stocks while sitting on committees that oversee defense policy. It is that they buy stocks in companies that are about to receive government contracts. It is that they sell stocks in companies that are about to be investigated. It is that they use their positions to enrich themselves, and then use their enrichment to justify their positions.

This is not a partisan issue. It is a systemic issue. It is a feature of a political system in which money is speech, corporations are people, and war is a business. The Useful Idiots in Congress are not idiots in the sense of being stupid. They are idiots in the sense of being useful to the people who fund their campaigns. They are useful because they vote the right way, give the right speeches, and appear on the right cable news shows. And they are rewarded for their usefulness with stock tips, campaign contributions, and the promise of lucrative consulting contracts when they leave office.

Part Two: The Revolving Door That Never Stops Spinning

From the Pentagon to the Boardroom

The revolving door between the Pentagon and the defense industry is not a new phenomenon. It has been documented for decades. Dwight Eisenhower warned about the "military-industrial complex" in his farewell address in 1961. What is new is the scale and the speed of the rotation. In the past, a retired general might join a defense company's board after a respectable interval. Today, the rotation is almost instantaneous. A general retires on Friday and starts advising a defense company on Monday. The ink on the retirement papers is not even dry. Once again, the American way…

A 2023 report by the Quincy Institute found that of 32 four-star military officers who retired between June 2018 and July 2023, 26 went on to work for the arms industry. That is a rate of over 80%. The remaining six presumably went into private equity, consulting, or academia, where they could still profit from their military connections without the inconvenience of disclosure requirements.

The pattern is so predictable that it has become a career path. You spend 30 years in the military, rising through the ranks, making contacts, learning the procurement system from the inside. You retire with a pension and a security clearance. You join the board of a defense contractor. You use your contacts to help the company win contracts. You get paid handsomely. You give speeches about the need for increased defense spending. You appear on cable news as a "national security expert." You write op-eds about the threat posed by various countries. You are, in effect, a lobbyist with a military uniform and a medal.

Lloyd Austin: The Raytheon Secretary

The most prominent example of this revolving door is Lloyd Austin, who served as Secretary of Defense under President Biden. Before becoming Secretary of Defense, Austin sat on the board of Raytheon Technologies, one of the largest defense contractors in the world. When he was confirmed as Secretary of Defense, he had to divest his Raytheon stock, which was valued at between $750,000 and $1.7 million.

Austin had earned at least $1.4 million from Raytheon since 2016, when he joined the board of United Technologies Corp., which later merged with Raytheon. In 2016, he received $380,000 in total compensation from the company. In 2017, $338,000. In 2018, $336,000. In 2019, $351,000. This is not a man who was independently wealthy and decided to serve his country out of a sense of duty. This is a man who was paid by Raytheon to be on their board, and who then became the Secretary of Defense, overseeing the department that buys weapons from Raytheon.

As Secretary of Defense, Austin was one of the strongest supporters of military aid to Ukraine. He announced that the United States would stand with Ukraine "through all seasons"—months and years. He also rejected plans to supply Ukraine with long-range attack missiles that could strike deep into disputed territory, a decision that was criticized by some as insufficiently aggressive. But even this decision can be seen through the lens of Raytheon's interests: the company makes a range of missiles, and the conflict in Ukraine has been a boon for its stock price regardless of the specific weapons systems involved.

Austin's tenure at the Pentagon was a case study in the revolving door. He came from Raytheon. He served at the Pentagon. He returned to the private sector—or rather, he returned to the world of consulting and board seats that awaits retired generals and former defense secretaries. The door never stopped spinning.

Mark Milley: The Multimillionaire General

General Mark Milley, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is another example of the revolving door in action. Milley retired in September 2023. By early 2024, he had become a senior adviser to JPMorgan Chase, joined the faculties of Princeton and Georgetown, and signed with the Harry Walker Agency for paid speaking engagements.

Milley's transformation from a public servant earning $204,000 a year to a multimillionaire was swift and seamless. The Intercept reported that Milley was represented by the same speakers' agency as Hillary Clinton, and that he had participated in a Q&A with 160 CEOs organized by investment bank Moelis & Company, where he provided his "insider's perspective on world affairs". His fee per appearance reportedly tracks between $150,000 and $250,000. A single hour on stage now earns him more than a year of command duty.

Milley had been the top U.S. military officer during the first year and a half of the Ukraine war. He had overseen the flow of weapons to Ukraine, had testified to Congress about the need for continued support, and had become one of the public faces of the U.S. commitment to Kyiv. When he retired, he did not go gentle into that good night. He went straight to Wall Street, where his knowledge of the war and his contacts in the Pentagon were highly valuable to clients who wanted to understand—and profit from—the geopolitical landscape.

Milley told the private-equity executives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: "I spent my career in a socialist organization... I'm just settling into capitalism". The audience laughed. The taxpayers didn't.

James Stavridis: The Admiral of the Boardroom

Admiral James Stavridis, the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, is another frequent cable news guest who has extensive ties to the defense industry. Stavridis serves as a partner and Vice Chairman at the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm that owns major defense contractors. He is also a member of the board of Fortinet, a cybersecurity firm, and has served as the chairman of the International Advisory Board of Northrop Grumman, one of the largest defense contractors in the world.

Stavridis has appeared frequently on MSNBC, where he once said that the solution in Ukraine is to "flood the zone" with troops and weapons. Like Panetta, he was presented as a neutral expert, a retired admiral offering his strategic insights. Like Panetta, his financial ties to the defense industry were not disclosed. The admiral who once commanded NATO forces was now using his credibility to advocate for policies that would benefit the companies he advised.

As a partner at the Carlyle Group, Stavridis advised the private equity firm on defense investments. When Carlyle wanted to grow its shipyard business, Stavridis advised looking west: "The Pacific fleet is going to be the dominant center of gravity for the Navy". One of Carlyle's portfolio companies bought a major shipyard in San Diego, and in February 2024 it sold the combined business for four times what it paid.

Leon Panetta: The CNN Consultant

Leon Panetta is the perfect example of this phenomenon. He served as CIA director and Secretary of Defense under President Obama. He is a senior counselor at Beacon Global Strategies, a defense industry consulting firm that has reportedly represented Raytheon, the maker of the Javelin and Stinger missiles that were sent to Ukraine.

In April 2022, Panetta appeared on CNN four times in a matter of weeks to discuss the war in Ukraine. Each time, he called for sending more weapons to Ukraine. "I think the United States has to provide whatever weapons are necessary to the Ukrainians, so that they can hit back, and hit back now," he said on CNN Newsroom. At no point did CNN disclose that Panetta was a senior counselor at a firm that represented Raytheon. At no point did CNN mention that Raytheon stood to benefit directly from the conflict in Ukraine.

Panetta's case is particularly egregious because he was not just a former official offering analysis. He was a paid consultant to the defense industry, using his media platform to advocate for policies that would benefit his clients. The line between punditry and lobbying had been erased, and the viewing public was none the wiser. Sort of genius.

The New Path Through the Revolving Door

The revolving door is not just about generals joining defense companies. It is also about the emergence of a new class of military-tech startups that blur the line between public service and private profit. As one academic study noted, "the emerging military tech sector has opened a new version of the revolving door—the movement of ex-military officers and senior Pentagon officials, not to arms companies per se, but to startups and venture capital firms that are betting on the next generation of military technology".

This new path is even more insidious than the old one. A retired general who joins Lockheed Martin's board is at least visible. A retired general who becomes an advisor to a venture capital firm that is investing in military-tech startups is harder to track. The general provides "strategic advice." The venture capital firm invests in companies that are developing drones, AI systems, and other technologies for the military. The general's contacts in the Pentagon help the startups win contracts. The venture capital firm makes a fortune. The general gets a cut.

This is the future of the military-industrial complex. It is not just about bombs and missiles anymore. It is about data, software, and artificial intelligence. And the people who are positioning themselves to profit from it are the same people who are making the decisions about what technology the military needs.

Part Three: The Pundits Who Never Disclose

The Media's Undisclosed Experts

If you watched CNN or MSNBC during the first year of the Ukraine war, you saw a parade of retired generals, former intelligence officials, and ex-defense secretaries explaining why the United States needed to send more weapons to Ukraine. What you did not see was any disclosure of their financial ties to the defense industry.

A report by The Lever, published in April 2022, analyzed punditry across CNN, MSNBC, and NBC News and found that the networks failed to inform viewers that many of their expert guests who called for supplying Ukraine with more weapons were currently employed by the weapons industry or its advocates. The report found that these analysts used their TV time to call for greater U.S. involvement and bolder moves that could ratchet up tensions between nuclear-armed powers, while the networks consistently failed to disclose their financial ties to defense contractors.

The pattern is not limited to one network or one host. It is systemic. It reflects a media environment in which national security expertise is defined by former government service, and former government service is often a prelude to a lucrative career in the defense industry. The revolving door between the Pentagon and the defense industry is mirrored by a revolving door between the Pentagon and the media. The same people who make policy appear on TV to explain why the policy is necessary, without mentioning that they profit from the policy.

Jim Cramer: The Mad Money War Profiteer

Jim Cramer, the host of CNBC's "Mad Money," is not a retired general or a former intelligence official. He is a stock picker, a carnival barker of the financial world, a man who shouts about stocks with the intensity of a televangelist. But his role in the Ukraine war profiteering ecosystem is just as significant as that of any general.

Cramer has been explicit about the connection between the war and defense stocks. In April 2026, he said: "First, we want anything and everything related to exposure to missiles. From the war in Ukraine to the perpetual defense of Israel, the latest war in Iran, the common thread has been that we never have enough missiles". In October 2025, he said that RTX (formerly Raytheon) was a buy because "these guys are working overtime to replenish our missiles because we sent so many of our stockpile to Ukraine".

Cramer is not a policymaker. He is a stock picker. But his stock picks influence millions of retail investors, and his framing of the war as an investment opportunity normalizes the idea that war is good for business. When Cramer tells his viewers to buy missile stocks because of the war in Ukraine, he is not just giving financial advice. He is reinforcing the narrative that the war should continue, because the war is profitable. He is, in his own loud way, a useful idiot.

The Media's Complicity

The media's failure to disclose the defense industry ties of its experts is not an oversight. It is a structural feature of a media environment in which national security coverage is dominated by former officials who have a financial interest in the policies they advocate. The networks could require their guests to disclose their consulting relationships. They could hire independent experts who do not have financial ties to the defense industry. They could, at the very least, mention when a guest is a paid consultant to Raytheon or a board member of Lockheed Martin.

They do not. The reason is not complicated. Former generals and intelligence officials are reliable guests. They speak with authority. They are telegenic. They are available. And they are unlikely to say anything that would disrupt the comfortable consensus that more weapons are always the answer. An independent expert who questioned the wisdom of endless war might be more accurate, but they would also be more difficult to book. The media prefers the useful idiots.

Part Four: The British Connection—Boris, the Bribe, and the Billionaire

The £1 Million Question

In October 2025, The Guardian published an investigation that sent shockwaves through Westminster. The newspaper, citing documents leaked by the nonprofit organization Decentralized Denial of Secrets, reported that former Prime Minister Boris Johnson had received a £1 million donation from Christopher Harborne, a businessman who is the largest single shareholder in QinetiQ, a British defense company that supplies drones to the Ukrainian army.

Harborne owns approximately 13% of QinetiQ's shares. The company has supplied Banshee drones and bomb-disposal robots to Ukrainian forces. In April 2025, the UK supplied Ukraine with Banshee Jet 80+ drones. The donation to Johnson was recorded in the Register of Members' Interests in November 2022, after Johnson had left office. But the timing was significant: it came at a moment when Johnson was actively advocating for Ukraine to continue fighting rather than negotiate a peace deal.

The Istanbul Negotiations

To understand the significance of the donation, you need to understand what happened in Istanbul in March 2022. Ukrainian and Russian negotiators met in the Turkish city in an attempt to reach a ceasefire agreement. According to multiple accounts, the talks were making progress. Ukraine was reportedly willing to accept a neutral status in exchange for security guarantees. The war could have ended in the spring of 2022.

Then Boris Johnson intervened. According to Ukrainian officials, Johnson urged Kyiv not to sign any agreement with Russia and to keep fighting. According to those accounts, he said that the West was not ready for any agreement with Russia. The war continued. Tens of thousands more died. And in November 2022, Johnson received £1 million from a man who owns 13% of a defense company that supplies drones to Ukraine. Harborne also accompanied Johnson on a two-day visit to Ukraine in September 2023, where he was listed as an "advisor to Boris Johnson's office." The visit included a closed-door meeting at a military technology research center. The Guardian noted that Johnson's behavior "blurred the line between public service and private profit".

The QinetiQ Profiteering

QinetiQ has been one of the beneficiaries of the Ukraine war. The company's stock price has risen as demand for drones and other military technology has increased. Its Banshee drones have been used by Ukrainian forces. Its bomb-disposal robots have been deployed in the conflict zone. And its largest shareholder donated £1 million to the former prime minister who, more than any other Western leader, encouraged Ukraine to continue fighting.

The connection is not difficult to trace. Johnson encouraged the war to continue. The war continued. QinetiQ profited. Harborne profited. Johnson received £1 million. Whether Johnson's advocacy was motivated by the donation, or whether the donation was a reward for the advocacy, is a question that only Johnson and Harborne can answer. But the appearance of corruption is overwhelming, and the British public has a right to know whether their former prime minister was acting in the national interest or in the interest of a defense company shareholder.

Johnson's response to the investigation was, characteristically, to dismiss it as a "farrago of nonsense." But the documents speak for themselves. The £1 million was not disclosed to the Electoral Commission, which suggests it was a personal gift rather than a political donation. Johnson's spokesperson claimed the money was for "personal use." The man who once said that the British people had "had enough of experts" was now relying on a defense industry billionaire to fund his personal expenses.

Ben Wallace and the UForce Startup

Johnson is not the only British politician to have profited from the Ukraine war. Ben Wallace, who served as Defense Secretary from 2019 to 2023, has become a director at UForce, a British-Ukrainian defense startup that recently achieved "unicorn" status (a valuation of over $1 billion).

Wallace was one of the key Western policymakers supporting Ukraine during the early years of the full-scale war. He oversaw the supply of weapons to Kyiv, including the controversial decision to send Challenger 2 tanks. Now he is a director at a defense company that stands to benefit from the continued conflict. UForce is a London-based drone startup that brings together Ukrainian producers of unmanned air, sea, and land vehicles, including the makers of Magura sea drones and Nemesis bombers. The company is in talks to raise approximately $500 million in a Series A round at a valuation of roughly $5 billion. Wallace sits on the board as an independent director.

The co-founders of UForce are Oleg Rogynskyy, a serial entrepreneur who previously built software company People.ai, and Oleksiy Honcharuk, former Prime Minister of Ukraine. The revolving door that spun Lloyd Austin from Raytheon to the Pentagon and back again has spun Ben Wallace from the Ministry of Defence to a defense startup that is profiting from the war he helped to sustain.

Rishi Sunak and the Arms Packages

Rishi Sunak, who served as Prime Minister from 2022 to 2024, also positioned himself as a strong supporter of Ukraine. In 2024, he announced £2.5 billion ($3.2 billion) in new military aid for Ukraine, including the "largest ever commitment of drones". He pledged to send 350 air defense missiles using funds from sanctioned assets. At least £200 million of the package was allocated to the procurement and production of "thousands of military drones," which was described as the largest drone delivery to Ukraine from any country.

Sunak's family wealth comes from his time in finance, not from the defense industry. But his policies have benefited the defense companies that supply the weapons he sent to Ukraine. The drones, the missiles, the artillery—all of it came from British defense companies. The shareholders of those companies have seen their portfolios rise. The politicians who approved the weapons packages have seen their reputations as "strong leaders" enhanced. The two groups have a symbiotic relationship, and the war in Ukraine is the bond that holds them together.

Part Five: The European Union—Lobbying, Lawsuits, and the Von der Leyen Problem

Ursula von der Leyen and the Arms Lobby

Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, has been accused of failing to disclose her contacts with the defense industry. In March 2025, Fabio De Masi, a German MEP, filed a formal request for details of all contacts between von der Leyen and arms manufacturers since mid-2024. The Commission's reply arrived seven months later, in October 2025, and contained little concrete information.

De Masi was not satisfied. In January 2026, he filed a lawsuit against the European Commission at the EU's General Court, accusing the Commission of failing to respect the European Parliament's right to oversight. At the heart of the case is a simple question: did von der Leyen, the most powerful official in the European Union, have undisclosed contacts with the defense companies that are profiting from the war in Ukraine?

Von der Leyen's office acknowledged that she had hosted a "strategic dialogue with the European defence industry" on 12 May 2025, which was attended by fifteen defense companies, including Airbus, Isar Aerospace, and representatives of the NATO Innovation Fund. The Commission's response to De Masi's request referred him to the transparency register and material already published on the Commission's website. De Masi argued that this fell short of the EU treaty rules requiring the Commission to answer parliamentary questions fully and within a reasonable time.

Von der Leyen's history of defense industry entanglements is not limited to her time as Commission President. As Germany's defense minister, she was accused of mismanaging millions of euros in public funds in awarding contracts to private consultants. The pattern of secrecy and close relationships with the defense industry has followed her from Berlin to Brussels.

In May 2025, the EU General Court found that the European Commission had wrongly dismissed a request by The New York Times to access texts between von der Leyen and the Pfizer CEO during the pandemic. The court found she had violated transparency rules by withholding correspondence about vaccine procurement worth over €30 billion. The pattern is consistent: secrecy, evasion, and a reluctance to disclose who is talking to whom about what.

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann and the Rheinmetall Connection

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the chair of the European Parliament's Defence Committee, has been one of the most vocal advocates for increased military support to Ukraine. She has also been accused of having close ties to the defense industry. A German press investigation noted that she is a member of the presidium of the German Society for Defence Technology and the Förderkreis Deutsches Heer, both of which are heavily influenced by the arms industry.

Strack-Zimmermann has close relations with Rheinmetall, a German defense company that manufactures the Panzerhaubitze 2000 artillery system that has been supplied to Ukraine. She has been described as "trommeling for the heroic Panzerhaubitze 2000"—a phrase that captures her enthusiastic advocacy for a weapons system that happens to be made by a company with which she has close ties. Critics have nicknamed her "Strack-Rheinmetall" due to her lobbying ties to the arms manufacturer. She has acknowledged exchanging with Rheinmetall representatives as chair of the Defence Committee, stating she does so "with many companies from this sector" to determine what is needed.

The pattern is familiar. A politician with oversight responsibilities develops close relationships with the industry she oversees. She advocates for policies that benefit the industry. The industry benefits. The politician's reputation as a "strong defender of Ukraine" grows. The war continues.

The NATO Procurement Scandal

The European Union's defense procurement system is also riddled with corruption. In December 2025, multiple investigative outlets reported a massive bribery scandal at the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA). The scandal exposed a shadowy network of private operators exploiting a revolving-door system that allows former NSPA staff to become consultants in the defense industry.

According to the reports, bribes were paid to NATO procurement agency officials to secure munitions contracts. The Israeli defense company Elbit Systems and its subsidiary Orion Advanced Systems were suspended from NATO procurement procedures on July 31, 2025, due to corruption allegations. An internal NSPA email listed 15 suspended contracts, 13 of them involving Elbit Systems or Orion. The deals under scrutiny included fuzes, aircraft flares, 155mm artillery shells, and upgrades for Portuguese naval patrol ships.

A 60-year-old Italian national, Eliau Eluasvili, a former NSPA staff member, was accused of using bribes to secure contracts for Elbit. A Belgian court issued an international arrest warrant for him in September 2025. The NSPA scandal is a reminder that corruption in defense procurement is not limited to any one country or any one conflict. The same revolving-door system that allows former Pentagon officials to join defense companies allows former NATO procurement officials to become consultants for the companies they once oversaw. The war in Ukraine has increased the amount of money flowing through these systems, and where there is more money, there is more corruption.

Part Six: The Intelligence Agencies and the Arms Trade

CIA and MI6: The Architects of the Proxy War

The involvement of Western intelligence agencies in Ukraine did not begin in 2022. It began in 2014, when the CIA and MI6 helped to rebuild Ukraine's intelligence services. According to reporting by The New York Times, on the night the new government was established in 2014, the CIA and MI6 chiefs in Ukraine met with the new head of Ukraine's intelligence service to plan cooperation. The CIA and MI6 then helped to rebuild the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) "from the ground up," building a vast intelligence network that included 12 monitoring stations along the border.

The CIA and MI6 supported, trained, and equipped Ukraine's intelligence services because Ukrainian operatives were easier to infiltrate into disputed territories than Western agents. The results included explosions at oil storage facilities, assassinations of political figures, and other covert operations. This is not speculation. It is documented in Western media and acknowledged by former intelligence officials.

The relationship between Western intelligence agencies and Ukraine's security services continues to this day. The CIA and MI6 provide intelligence, training, and equipment to Ukraine. They help to plan operations. They share information. And they are deeply involved in the management of the arms trade that flows into Ukraine and, increasingly, out of it.

According to French weekly L'Express, the DGSE (French external intelligence), along with MI6 and the CIA, has played a role in training and providing operational support to Ukrainian intelligence services for several years. A senior French intelligence official summarized the arrangement: "MI6 and the DGSE [provide] operational expertise". The involvement of three major Western intelligence agencies in supporting Ukrainian clandestine operations illustrates the depth of the proxy war infrastructure. The agencies provide training, intelligence, and operational support. The Ukrainian services carry out the operations. The weapons flow through the system. The profits flow to the defense companies. The intelligence agencies maintain plausible deniability.

The Black Market Arms Trade

The weapons that the West sends to Ukraine do not always stay in Ukraine. They leak. They are stolen. They are sold. They end up in the hands of criminal gangs, drug cartels, and terrorist organizations across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The scale of the leakage is staggering.

A report by the Pentagon's Inspector General found that U.S. officials and diplomats were unable to account for 40,000 weapons sent to the front. The U.S. admitted it had failed to track more than $1 billion in weapons in the period to June 2023. Ukrainian officials have acknowledged that 780,465 weapons have been lost or stolen since the start of 2022.

The arms that leak from Ukraine do not disappear. They reappear on the black market. They are sold to criminal gangs in Sweden, drug cartels in Mexico, and extremist groups in the Sahel. The war in Ukraine has become a pipeline for weapons that destabilize other regions. And the people who are facilitating this pipeline—the intelligence agencies, the defense contractors, the politicians—are the same people who tell us that we must continue to send weapons to Ukraine to prevent the weapons from falling into the wrong hands.

Tucker Carlson and the CIA Connection

Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host, has been one of the most prominent voices claiming that the CIA knows about the arms trafficking from Ukraine and is complicit in it. In February 2025, Carlson said that "more than 50% of the weapons that the United States sends to Ukraine are sold on the black market" and that the CIA knows about it. He also claimed that the CIA profits from the arms trade.

Carlson's claims have been fact-checked and disputed by Western media, which notes that international audits have found no evidence of systematic diversion of arms to the black market. But the fact-checks themselves are revealing. They acknowledge that "some weapons have gone missing in combat zones" but insist there is "no evidence of significant arms sales on the black market". The distinction between "some weapons going missing" and "significant arms sales" is a fine one. When you are talking about 780,000 missing weapons, the difference between "some" and "significant" is measured in thousands of lives.

Part Seven: The Ukrainian Side—Fire Point, Burisma, and the Corruption That Never Ends

Fire Point: The $1 Billion Drone Company

Fire Point is one of the great success stories of the Ukraine war. The company, which makes long-range drones and the Flamingo cruise missile, earned roughly $1 billion in a single year. It has rapidly risen to prominence in Ukraine's defense industry and is now building a manufacturing plant in Denmark. The company launched its advisory board on November 12, 2025.

Fire Point is also under scrutiny for corruption. The company has been accused of price gouging and of having an unfair monopoly over Ukraine's drone market. It has ties to Tymur Mindich, an associate of President Zelensky who is under investigation for corruption. The Anti-Corruption Council of Ukraine has called for a review of Fire Point's contracts and suggested the possibility of partial nationalization.

Mike Pompeo and the Advisory Board

In November 2025, former CIA Director and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo joined Fire Point's advisory board. The appointment placed Pompeo on both sides of future military deals. As a former U.S. government official, he had influence in Washington. As a member of Fire Point's advisory board, he stood to benefit directly from the Western military aid to Ukraine that he had frequently advocated for since the start of the war. His role "would essentially place him on both sides of any future deals".

Pompeo's position on Fire Point's advisory board is the perfect embodiment of the revolving door. He spent years in government, advocating for military aid to Ukraine. Now he is advising a company that profits from that aid. The line between public service and private profit has not just been blurred. It has been erased.

Pompeo's appointment was not his first foray into the world of Ukrainian business. He also served on the board of Kyivstar, a major Ukrainian telecom firm. Responsible Statecraft noted that Pompeo stood to benefit from the "Trump Peace Plan" he outlined in the Wall Street Journal, which urged Ukraine's entry into the EU and proposed a $500 billion "lend-lease" program for Ukraine to purchase U.S. weapons. As a board member of Kyivstar, Pompeo would have benefited financially from the economic gains the company was expected to see if Ukraine joined the EU under his plan.

The Mindich Tapes

The Fire Point scandal is connected to a larger corruption scandal involving Tymur Mindich, a fugitive Ukrainian businessman who is accused of being involved in a large-scale money-laundering scheme. According to recordings obtained by Ukrainian media, Mindich discussed the sale of a stake in Fire Point with former Defense Minister Rustem Umerov. Mindich offered $1 billion for a 50% stake in the company.

The recordings, known as the "Mindich tapes," have become a major scandal in Ukraine. They suggest that Fire Point, a company that has received hundreds of millions of dollars in Western military aid, may be controlled by a businessman who is under investigation for corruption. Transcripts suggest that Umerov and Mindich believed each Fire Point shareholder would cash out some $300 million on the back of contracts with EDGE (a UAE defense conglomerate) and other European deals. The Anti-Corruption Council of Ukraine has urged the removal of Umerov over his alleged links to Mindich.

Denys Shtilerman, the owner of Fire Point, is accused of creating a monopolist company with the support of Minister Rustem Umerov, with the intention of selling it profitably. The allegations suggest that Fire Point's rise was not purely a function of merit but of political connections and corruption within Ukraine's defense procurement system.

The Mindich tapes are a reminder that corruption in Ukraine did not disappear when the war started. It simply adapted. The same oligarchs who plundered Ukraine's economy before the war are now plundering the war effort itself. They are buying stakes in defense companies, securing government contracts, and profiting from the billions of dollars in Western aid that flow into the country.

Operation Midas, as the investigation is known, uncovered a $100 million money-laundering and bribery scheme that implicated high-ranking officials and associates close to President Volodymyr Zelensky. At the center was Tymur Mindich, a close Zelensky associate and co-owner of his Kvartal 95 production company. Ukrainian anti-corruption authorities conducted 70 searches on November 10, 2025. The recordings were made in an apartment belonging to Mindich, who is suspected of corruption in the energy sector.

Burisma and the Biden Connection

The Burisma scandal is the most famous example of Ukrainian corruption intersecting with Western politics. Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden, joined the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company, in 2014, while its owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, was under investigation for money laundering and corruption. Hunter Biden reportedly earned around $1 million annually for his services. He left the post in 2019.

Hunter Biden has since described Ukraine as a "viper's den" of corruption and his role at Burisma as an act of "incredible naivety". The admission is remarkable for its candor. It is also remarkable for what it reveals about the way Western elites have viewed Ukraine for decades: as a country where you can make a lot of money if you are willing to look the other way.

The Burisma affair became the centerpiece of a political scandal in the United States, with Republicans accusing Joe Biden of using his position as Vice President to protect his son's lucrative position. The allegations were never proven. But the perception of corruption—the appearance that Western officials were using Ukraine for personal enrichment—has been a constant feature of the relationship between the West and Ukraine since the end of the Cold War.

Part Eight: The Arms Dealers—Who Actually Profits?

The Stock Market as a War Index

The stock prices of major defense contractors have become a reliable indicator of geopolitical tension. When the war in Ukraine escalated, Lockheed Martin's stock price jumped. When Hamas attacked Israel, it jumped again. When the United States killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, it jumped again. The pattern is so consistent that it has become a kind of macabre stock ticker for war.

The Quincy Institute's analysis found that defense stocks consistently surge during military conflicts—jumping after the Soleimani assassination, Hamas's October 7 attack, and throughout the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. This creates a direct financial incentive for lawmakers to support military interventions over diplomatic solutions. When peace costs politicians money, they have a vested interest in war.

The Companies That Profit

The companies that profit from the war in Ukraine are not just the Lockheed Martins and Raytheons of the world. They are also the smaller companies that supply components, the consulting firms that advise on procurement, the law firms that handle contracts, and the lobbyists who ensure that the money keeps flowing.

QinetiQ, the British defense company whose largest shareholder donated £1 million to Boris Johnson, is one example. The company supplies drones and bomb-disposal robots to Ukraine. Its stock price has risen as the war has continued. Its largest shareholder has used his wealth to influence the political debate in Britain.

Fire Point, the Ukrainian drone company advised by Mike Pompeo, is another example. The company earned $1 billion in a single year. It is building a factory in Denmark. Its advisory board includes a former CIA director who advocated for the military aid that made the company's success possible.

The defense industry is not a monolith. It is a network of companies, large and small, that are connected by contracts, subcontracts, and political relationships. The war in Ukraine has been a boon for all of them. The longer the war continues, the more money they make. The more money they make, the more they can spend on lobbying and campaign contributions. The more they spend on lobbying, the more likely the war is to continue.

The Human Cost

It is easy to get lost in the numbers—the billions of dollars in aid, the millions in stock trades, the thousands of weapons that go missing. But behind every number is a human being. The Ukrainian soldier who dies in a trench. The Ukrainian civilian who loses their home. The conscript on the other side who is sent to fight in a war he may not understand. The European taxpayer who subsidizes the defense industry. The American voter who is told that the war is necessary but is not told that their representative is profiting from it.

The Useful Idiots of the Ukraine war are not the people who fight and die. They are the people who profit from the fighting and dying. They are the politicians who vote for war while owning defense stocks. They are the generals who retire and join the boards of defense companies. They are the pundits who advocate for war without disclosing their financial ties. They are the intelligence officials who facilitate the arms trade and then deny that it is happening. They are the arms dealers who sell weapons to both sides and profit from the chaos. They are the useful idiots of a system that has turned death into a business model.

Conclusion: The Real Axis of Evil

The war in Ukraine has exposed something ugly about the Western political and economic system. It has revealed that the people who make decisions about war and peace are often the same people who profit from war. It has revealed that the media, which is supposed to hold power accountable, is often complicit in the profiteering. It has revealed that the intelligence agencies, which are supposed to protect democracy, are often engaged in activities that undermine it. And it has revealed that the defense industry, which is supposed to serve the national interest, has become an interest group that has captured the government.

This is not a left-wing critique or a right-wing critique. It is a human critique. It is a critique of a system that has lost its moral compass. It is a critique of a system in which the answer to every problem is more weapons, more money, more war. It is a critique of a system in which the useful idiots have become the masters.

The useful idiots are not stupid. They are not naive. They are not idealists who genuinely believe that they are defending democracy. They are people who have made a calculation: the war is profitable, and they intend to profit from it. They have convinced themselves that their personal enrichment is a side effect of their public service, rather than the purpose of it. They have convinced themselves that they are the good guys, even as they count their money and watch the body bags come home.

The war in Ukraine will end eventually. All wars do. When it ends, the useful idiots will move on to the next conflict. They will find new enemies to demonize, new weapons to sell, new stock to buy. They will appear on cable news to explain why the next war is necessary. They will write op-eds about the threat posed by the next adversary. They will retire from government and join the boards of the companies that profit from the next conflict.

And the rest of us—the taxpayers, the voters, the people who actually fight and die in the wars—will be left to pick up the pieces. We will be told that the war was necessary, that the sacrifices were worth it, that the useful idiots were acting in our best interests. We will be told that we should be grateful. We will be told that we should trust our leaders. We will be told all of this by the same people who profited from our pain.

The useful idiots have won. They have turned war into a business. They have turned death into a stock. They have turned patriotism into a scam. And they have done it all while waving the flag, singing the anthem, and telling us that we are the ones who are free.

This paper is dedicated to the people of Ukraine, and all the other countries that have been turned into laboratories for the military-industrial complex. It is dedicated to the soldiers who died for the profit margins of men they will never meet. It is dedicated to the truth, which is the first casualty of every war, and the last thing the useful idiots want you to find.

References

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Cite this article

Turner, W. A. (2026). Useful Idiots: A Guide to the Western Profiteers of the Ukraine War. The Ukraine Files. Infinitum Corporation. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23836478

Also available

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23836478
• Zenodo (PDF): zenodo.org/records/23836478
• Academia.edu: Infinitum Corporation research profile
• Archived copy: Wayback Machine

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By William Aaron Turner (ORCID 0009-0002-1585-5442), founder of Infinitum Corporation, Washington, DC, and the person who coined the term Corporate Cognitive Warfare: narrative strategy and cognitive dominance for companies, drawing on the established field of cognitive warfare. Contact: 202-729-9509 (Mon–Fri 9 AM–9 PM ET) · Telegram · Discord