DISINFO: Zelenskyy's associates stole weapons money because they believed Ukraine will cease to exist
SUMMARY
It seems that in the spring and summer of 2022, Zelenskyy's associates stole 100% of the money for weapons, believing that Ukraine would cease to exist, and they would not have to return that money. However, the war continued, and they began to steal, but in a more modest way, . . . as evidenced by the scandals of buying food for the Ukrainian army at three times the retail price.
RESPONSE
This claim appears in an article that is based on an investigation published by the Ukrainian website Pravda, which focuses on the failure of suppliers to deliver some military and non-military supplies to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence.
According to the investigation, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence is opening lawsuits against those suppliers. The number of lawsuits is currently standing at 30 with a total amount of overdue contracts of 8.9 billion Ukrainian hryvnia (about 225 million euros). While this is a large sum, it is nowhere near the "100% of the money for weapons" as claimed in the article. Moreover, nowhere in the investigation was it mentioned that associates of President Zelenskyy were involved in these violations.
Concerns about potential corruption in Ukraine are legitimate and have in fact been expressed by some top politicians in allied countries, including EU officials. However, the claim that "Zelenskyy's associates stole 100% of the money for weapons" is unsubstantiated.
By substantially distorting the facts mentioned in the Pravda investigation while claiming to be based on it, the ultimate goal of this disinformation story is to undermine international support for Ukraine against Russia’s unprovoked aggression.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives in our database, such as claims that Western weapons are stolen long before they reach the Ukrainian soldiers, and that International support for Ukraine starts to decrease due to corruption.