Ukraine faces ‘huge problems’ finding soldiers as men flee abroad, says Kyiv mayor

--- "The remarks reflect mounting concern about a growing exodus of young men. A government decree issued in August allowing men aged 18 to 22 to leave the country has coincided with a sharp increase in Ukrainians seeking protection in EU countries. Recent data shows EU countries granted more than 79,000 new temporary protection decisions to Ukrainians in September — the highest monthly figure in two years — with large increases recorded in Germany and Poland."

Looks as if European "liberals" are of two minds about it all.

Ukrainians should fight and not fight. Stories about the necessity to send Ukrainians "home" to fight, and stories about the necessity of NOT sending Ukrainians "home" to fight.

A fascinating schizophrenia in the body politic of Europe, over a was between two non-NATO nations.

---- "Who wants to be the last man to die for George Soros, Davos and MI6?"

Up to date from Kyiv....

"During his presidential campaign, Volodymyr Zelensky highlighted two key failings of then-President Petro Poroshenko: corruption and nepotism.
"Six years into his own presidency, Zelensky has found himself on the receiving end of the exact same criticism, drowning in a corruption scandal."
< s n i p > " 'We end up with a situation where decision-making is concentrated in the President's Office,' said Saakian. 'Absolute power corrupts absolutely. It was only a matter of time before someone in the inner circle started enriching themselves or tried to play their own game'."
Biggest corruption scandal of Zelensky’s presidency is in his own ranks Kyiv Independent, 13 November 2025.

So the question enlarges. "Who wants to be the last man to die for George Soros, Davos and MI6? And Galushchenko, Mindich, Halushchenko, Myroniuk, the Zukerman brothers, Chernyshov, Hrinchuk, Koval and, alongside many more names, Volodymyr Zelenskyy who seems either 1) at the heart of the corruption, or 2) a complete fool, blind to all his closest "friends" and business associates?

Russians worship their Zs.

Governor Dinwiddie: "Why doesn't Li'l Z-Man lead the troops into battle?
Z-Man is always dressed in "tactical" clothes, so maybe it's time that he walks-the-walk.
He can bring along his camo booster seat and elevator combat boots too."

The "Z-Man" is Russia's Mad Vlad the Invader Putin.
"Z" is their symbol and war-cry, Russian's worship their "Z's".

As for "Lil", Ukraine's Pres. Zelensky is roughly the same height as:

Napoleon
Ulysses S. Grant
Winston Churchill
Vladimir Putin

So, your obsession with mocking Zelensky's height says a lot about you, FRiend, nothing about him.

Related...

Orbán Viktor
@PM_ViktorOrban

The golden illusion of Ukraine is falling apart. A wartime mafia network with countless ties to President
@ZelenskyyUa has been exposed. The energy minister has already resigned, and the main suspect has fled the country.

This is the chaos into which the Brusselian elite want to pour European taxpayers’ money, where whatever isn’t shot off on the front lines ends up in the pockets of the war mafia. Madness.

Thank you, but we want no part of this. We will not send the Hungarian people’s money to Ukraine. It can be put to far better use at home: this week alone we doubled foster parents’ allowances and approved the 14th month’s pension.

Anyhow, after all this, we certainly won’t give in to the Ukrainian president’s financial demands and blackmail. It’s high time Brussels finally understood where their money is really going.

2:32 AM · Nov 13, 2025 193.4K Views

https://x.com/PM_ViktorOrban/status/1988872603486859746

McGruff: "What a tragedy.
History will not look back kindly on this war."

Ukrainians have fought for their independence for 800 years, since 1223 against the Monguls, including:

16th & 17th Century Cossack rebellions against Poland and Moscow
18th Century alliance with Sweden against Russia (Great Northern War)
19th Century Ukrainian uprisings crushed by Russian and Austrian militaries.
20th Century 1917-1923 War for Ukrainian independence, crushed by the USSR.

The current war of Ukrainian independence will rank as the most serious of them all.
Indeed Ukraine's death & destruction tolls are beginning to become comparable to those of:

1917-1923 War for Independence -- ~300,000 Ukrainians died at the hands of Soviet armies.
1930s Holodomor -- ~4 million Ukrainians died at the hands of Kremlin bureaucrats and GRU/NKVD (secret police) enforcers.
1940s WWII -- ~7 Ukrainians million died, mostly at the hands of Nazis, but ~500,000 by Soviet actions.
The WWII total is the highest count of any Soviet Republic (Belarus had a higher percentage).

In the end, will Ukraine win its independence?
Yes, I think so, but at what cost?

Forward the Light Brigade: "No Problem—Just draft kids who are 18—to 16. Draft whole high schools and colleges. Women too—..."

Ukrainians lost some 300,000 killed in their 1917-1923 War for Independence against Moscow.

Ukrainians lost ~4 million in Moscow's 1930s Holodomor engineered famine.

Ukrainians lost ~7 million in WWII, of whom some ~500,000 died at the hands of Soviets.

Ukrainians have lost ~100,000 deaths in total since Russia's invasions began in 2014.

The current war represents Ukraine's best opportunity to achieve real independence since at least 1923, perhaps since the Great Northern War of 1708-1709.

Worldtraveler once upon a time: "During his presidential campaign, Volodymyr Zelensky highlighted two key failings of then-President Petro Poroshenko: corruption and nepotism."

Right.

Since Zelensky's election in 2019 we've seen a steady stream of major corruption cases investigated and prosecuted, including the following:

Major Ukraine Corruption Cases since 2019 as of November 2025

Year	Case	Description	Estimated Amount	Remarks
2015–2016 charged in 2020	Kyiv Customs Officials	Bribery and smuggling ring exposed	~$1.3 million	source
2013–2016 arrested in 2023	Ihor Kolomoisky	Embezzlement from PrivatBank and oil firms	~$1.9 billion	Former Zelensky ally Kolomoisky jailed in Kyiv
2020 charged in 2025	State Food and Grain Corporation	Embezzlement and kickbacks on port contracts	~$4 million	source
2021	Odesa Port Authority	Fraud in grain exports and credit lines	~$57 million	source
2022	Defense Ministry Procurement	Inflated contracts for military gear	~$2.7 million	source
2023	Deputy Infrastructure Minister Vasyl Lozynsky	Arrested for accepting bribes on heating contracts	~$400,000	source
2024	Chernyshov & Kyiv Developer Ring	Land fraud and bribery involving Zelensky ally	~$10 million	Zelensky appointee
2025	Energoatom Kickback Scheme	Nuclear infrastructure contracts skimmed for bribes	~$100 million	Zelensky business partner

The result has been a significant improvement (30%) in Ukraine's Corruption Perceptions Index, in stark contrast to both the USA (down 15%) and Russia (down 25%), which have continued their long-term declines, meaning ever increasing corruption.

Worldtraveler once upon a time: "Volodymyr Zelenskyy who seems either 1) at the heart of the corruption, or 2) a complete fool, blind to all his closest "friends" and business associates?"

No, you're not even close, it's the opposite.

Pres. Zelensky is behind and responsible for all of the investigations, arrests and prosecutions.
They prove that Zelensky is, in fact, living up to his and his party's 2019 campaign promises to clean up Ukraine's government & business corruptions.

Gosh, by golly. So many attempts at refutation of open news sources in one thread.

Your first attempt at refutation spins off from a quote found in the Kyiv Independent, 13 November 2025. You're trying to refute a UKRAINIAN source.

That UKRAINIAN source -- cited and hotlinked -- stated clearly:

" 'We end up with a situation where decision-making is concentrated in the President's Office,' said Saakian. 'Absolute power corrupts absolutely. It was only a matter of time before someone in the inner circle started enriching themselves or tried to play their own game'."

As reporting on the scandal grows, more sources are saying quite similar things. You'll need to refute Ukrainian press now.

Worldtraveler once upon a time: "That UKRAINIAN source -- cited and hotlinked -- stated clearly:
" 'We end up with a situation where decision-making is concentrated in the President's Office,' said Saakian. 'Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
It was only a matter of time before someone in the inner circle started enriching themselves or tried to play their own game'."
Sure, Ukraine is a democracy and, unlike your favorite dictatorship, Russia, in Ukraine citizens are allowed to criticize their leaders.

The fact remains that Zelensky and his Servant of the People political party ran for election in 2019 promising to crack down on corruption, and they have repeatedly delivered on their promise -- see my table above.
The current arrests are not even the largest, that was back in 2023, a Zelensky ally arrested for embezzling nearly $2 billion.

BTW, while we're on this subject -- the US also has a history of presidential family & aids being investigated & prosecuted for corruption, including (partial listing):

US Presidential Relatives & Aides Investigated/Prosecuted for Corruption:

Administration	Relative / Aide	What Happened
Richard Nixon (1969–1974)	H.R. Haldeman (Chief of Staff); John Ehrlichman (Domestic Affairs Advisor)	Convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury in the Watergate scandal.
Jimmy Carter (1977–1981)	Billy Carter (brother)	Investigated by Senate in 1980 (“Billygate”) for ties to Libya and acting as an unregistered foreign agent; no conviction.
Jimmy Carter (1977–1981)	T. Bertram "Bert" Lance (Director of OMB, campaign supporter)	Resigned in 1977 amid allegations of banking improprieties; indicted in 1980 for bank fraud and conspiracy but acquitted.
Ronald Reagan (1981–1989)	John Poindexter (National Security Advisor); Caspar Weinberger (Defense Secretary)	Indicted in the Iran–Contra affair for lying to Congress and involvement in covert arms-for-hostages scheme. Weinberger and several others were pardoned by George H.W. Bush in 1992.
George H.W. Bush (1989–1993)	Neil Bush (son)	Investigated for role in Silverado Savings & Loan collapse; settled civil charges and paid fines.
Bill Clinton (1993–2001)	Roger Clinton (half-brother)	Convicted of cocaine distribution in 1985 (pre-presidency); investigated during presidency; pardoned by Bill Clinton in 2001.
Bill Clinton (1993–2001)	Webster Hubbell (Associate Attorney General, longtime ally)	Convicted in 1995 of mail fraud and tax evasion related to law firm billing practices.
George W. Bush (2001–2009)	Scooter Libby (Chief of Staff to VP Cheney)	Convicted in 2007 of perjury and obstruction of justice in the Valerie Plame CIA leak case; sentence commuted by George W. Bush in 2007, later fully pardoned by Donald Trump in 2018.
Barack Obama (2009–2017)	James Comey (FBI Director); John Brennan (CIA Director); Peter Strzok (FBI official); Lisa Page (FBI lawyer); James Clapper (DNI)	No major prosecutions during presidency. Post‑presidency: Comey indicted in 2025; Brennan, Strzok, Page, and Clapper subpoenaed by federal grand jury.
Donald Trump (2017–2021, 2025– )	Paul Manafort (2016 campaign chairman)	Convicted in 2018 of tax fraud and bank fraud; pardoned by Donald Trump in December 2020.
Donald Trump (2017–2021, 2025– )	Michael Cohen (personal lawyer)	Convicted in 2018 of campaign finance violations and tax fraud.
Joe Biden (2021–2025)	Hunter Biden (son)	Indicted in 2023 on gun-related charges; investigated for tax issues and foreign business dealings.

Point is: vigorous prosecutions of corruption can be a sign of a functioning democracy and, in this case, of Zelensky fulfilling his 2019 campaign promise to clean up government.

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