Ukraine finds itself at a delicate and dangerous moment. It will soon be four years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion; the town of Pokrovsk is about to fall after a long, bloody siege; and the recent shelling of the capital, Kyiv, was one of the heaviest since 2022. And just recently, U.S. President Donald Trump put forward a peace plan that is a sort of AI translation of the Kremlin¡¯s demands for Ukraine: to surrender territory, cut the size of its army and abandon many modern weapons systems.
Against this backdrop, it might seem that a corruption investigation focused on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy¡¯s inner circle could not come at a worse time. But this may turn out to be just the scandal Ukraine needs to show why it deserves to survive with its sovereignty intact.
Public anger about the embezzlement of at least $100 million by a group led by a close friend and business partner of Zelenskyy is intense and widespread. But my Ukrainian friends ¡ª none of them a fan of the president ¡ª consider the investigation to be proof that anti-corruption measures are working even in the midst of war. Whatever the military balance on the frontline, the political balance is unambiguous: Russia, the aggressor, is a brutal autocracy, whereas Ukraine, the victim of the aggression, is a struggling democracy.
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