MOSCOW, December 18. /TASS/. The corruption scandal in Ukraine has, according to Western diplomatic sources, triggered a sharp decline in Ukrainian soldiers’ morale on the front lines, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said in a statement on Thursday.
"Ukrainian soldiers’ morale at the front lines has plunged as a result of the corruption scandal in Ukraine, according to Western diplomatic sources," the statement reads. "An increasing number of newly mobilized troops are deserting their positions, unwilling to risk death or injury to line the accounts of [Vladimir] Zelensky’s team in foreign banks."
"The unprecedented surge in desertion cases forced the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine to withdraw previously published statistics on newly opened criminal cases for reported AWOLs," the statement added.
Corruption scandal
On November 10, Ukraine's anti-corruption authorities carried out a large-scale operation to uncover a major corruption scheme in the energy sector. Mindich, who is called Zelensky's "wallet," was the mastermind of the scheme.
Raids were conducted at the residences of Mindich, Justice Minister German Galushchenko, who was later dismissed, and the premises of the Energoatom company. According to the investigation, the participants of the criminal scheme laundered at least $100 million. Later, fragments of recordings of conversations in Mindich's apartment were published, in which corruption schemes were discussed. There are 1,000 hours of tapes in total.
On November 17, reports appeared that the then head of Zelensky's office Andrey Yermak might appear on the recordings under the pseudonym Ali Baba.
The corruption scandal triggered a deep crisis of the Ukrainian government - the work of parliament was blocked for some time, and some deputies, including from the ruling Servant of the People party, demanded Yermak's resignation. On November 28, his apartment was searched, and on the same day Zelensky fired him.