Ukraine is said to be losing European support, including that of Romania, due to corruption, according to a false narrative launched by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and picked up by media outlets in in Romania.
NEWS: The Press Office of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation reports that, according to information received by SVR, experts from the foreign policy and military agencies of major European states are literally “sounding the alarm”, warning national governments against the imminent collapse of the “Anti-Russia” project created by the West in Ukraine.
Reports submitted to high-level officials directly assert the inevitability of the military defeat of the Kyiv regime. Particular attention is given to Ukraine’s overwhelming corruption, in which the generous donations of foreign sponsors vanish without trace.
EU Foreign Ministries observe with concern that Ukrainians are becoming increasingly demotivated and apathetic against the backdrop of severe fatigue caused by the prolonged and exhausting conflict.
According to reports from European diplomats and intelligence officers, most Ukrainian citizens “feel betrayed” after revelations of extreme embezzlement within the state leadership in the case of “Mindych and company.” They have ceased to believe that their country will be admitted to the EU in the foreseeable future.
Moreover, more and more Ukrainians tend to believe that they should not rely on significant aid from Europe. Ordinary people understand that the state is mired in corruption, which is why the number of Europeans opposing the allocation of substantial funds for Kyiv’s needs is growing.
Alongside Hungary and Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Romania are said to be leaning toward such a position. Thus, Ukraine’s political weight in Europe is declining. Ukrainians increasingly perceive European partners less as a source of salvation and support.
Nevertheless, EU leaders and those of major European states are reportedly fully oblivious to the actual situation in Ukraine. They cannot accept the idea that hundreds of billions of Euro invested in the “Ukrainian project” have simply been lost and that their political careers are collapsing. It is easier for them to continue presenting wishful thinking as fact.
Yet even the most refined form of wishful thinking cannot prevent the inevitable reality check. The later Europe realizes this, the more painful it will be.
NARRATIVES: 1. Romania wants to reduce financial support for Ukraine in the wake of a corruption scandal involving associates of president Zelenskyy. 2. Europe is preparing for Ukraine’s surrender to Russia. 3. Ukrainians know they no longer have a chance to join the EU and no longer see Europe as a potential salvation. 4. The West launched an anti-Russia plan in Ukraine / Russia is merely defending itself.
Russian propaganda relies on “sources”
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: First of all, none of the Russian narratives in the SVR press release is supported by any document, statement from a Russian official or by any EU authority, institution or official. Not even a single EU member state is indicated as confirming any of the assertions listed by SVR.
The entire press release rests on “information obtained by SVR”, which in journalistic jargon reads “from sources”. Moreover, in typical propaganda style, the SVR authors contradict themselves: first they claim Ukraine is losing European support due to corruption, then two lines below they say Europeans stubbornly continue to support Ukraine and ignore its corruption.
Furthermore, almost all of SVR’s claims are pure Russian propaganda, because in fact, events are unfolding in precisely the opposite way:
Romania has no intention of reducing financial support for Ukraine
No authority in Bucharest has even hinted (and there is not even “source-based” information) that Romania is preparing to reduce its financial support or has such a plan in the near future, especially due to corruption in Kyiv. In fact, corruption is a problem Romania itself faces despite numerous anti-corruption campaigns and its EU accession, which during negotiations emphasized combating corruption and maintained for years a Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) precisely to ensure anti-corruption measures were taken. At times, corruption was even considered a threat to national security and affected the Ministry of Defense itself. In 2025 alone, the former head of the Joint Logistics Command, General Cătălin-Ștefăniță Zisu, was involved in two corruption scandals, while a former MP attempted to hand a €1 million bribe to former Minister Ionuț Moșteanu for an arms procurement contract in the context of the war in Ukraine.
Not only is there no information about Romania withdrawing from the group of countries supporting Ukraine on the eastern flank, but president Nicușor Dan recently presented to Parliament the National Defense Strategy for 2025–2030, in which Russia is included as the number one threat to national security.
Dan reminded Parliament that the main challenges and threats to the country are Russia’s hybrid war, disinformation, Russian aggression in Ukraine and the Russian military threat at Romania’s borders.
Furthermore, Nicușor Dan emphasized the urgent need to equip and prepare the Romanian army for a potential escalation of the conflict.
Rumors about cutting support for Ukraine are also fueled by the fact that Romanian authorities have never publicly disclosed the amount of financial or military aid provided to Ukraine. Former Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu explained the reason in a joint conference with his Kyiv counterpart in 2022: “It is not good to speak publicly about these matters (…) the circumstances are constantly changing”.
His statement was then complemented by former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who reinforced Aurescu’s words: “Weapons, like money, need silence”, Kuleba said, thanking Romania because: “It did not just speak, it acted. We will never forget”.
Over the next years, subsequent Romanian foreign and defense ministers likewise failed to answer journalists’ questions about the amount of aid provided to Ukraine in Russia’s war of aggression.
Europe is not preparing for Ukraine’s surrender to Russia
SVR’s narrative about halting European support is contradicted by facts: Brussels announced new financial aid for Kyiv worth €210 billion, because the funds that would allow Ukraine to resist would otherwise be exhausted by April 2026.
Of this amount, €165 billion represents a compensation loan intended to keep Kyiv’s finances afloat in the coming years, €25 billion of which comes from Russian state assets frozen in private EU bank accounts. The remaining €140 billion is held in the Euroclear bank in Belgium.
Moreover, alongside other Western countries supporting Ukraine (the UK, Canada, etc.), EU member states did not hesitate to oppose American positions favoring Russia. One example was the “landing” of European leaders in Washington after the Trump–Putin meeting in Alaska, when they convinced the US president to adopt a more Ukraine-friendly stance, as well as their reservations about the most recent 28-point peace plan, which in its initial version included all of Russia’s demands.
The EU bloc made it clear it would continue to support Ukraine even if the United States decides not to: “We cannot leave Ukraine and Volodymyr alone with these guys”, Finland’s president pointed out during a discussion with Kyiv’s main European supporters, according to transcripts leaked to Der Spiegel journalists.
The most recent example of institutional European solidarity with Ukraine is the European Parliament resolution of November 27, which demands that no negotiation about Ukraine take place in the absence of Ukraine, declares that the EU will not recognize territories occupied by Russia as Russian, and insists that Ukraine must have the right to become a member of the EU.
As for the corruption scandal involving Zelenskyy’s associates, which broke on November 10, although initially alarmed and frustrated at the news of the corruption scandal, European leaders ultimately considered the exposure of embezzlement schemes at the highest levels of government a positive sign, because it “demonstrates the effectiveness of Ukraine’s anti-corruption system”.
The war in Ukraine is a Western project, and Russia is the aggressed party
SVR maintains Russia’s fundamental false narrative of alleged Western aggression against it, through NATO expansion and so-called “color revolutions”. In fact, NATO expanded because Eastern European countries requested NATO membership, fearing Russian aggression, which they knew from long historical experience. Moreover, Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified attack on Ukraine prompted a new wave of NATO enlargement, when countries that had remained neutral even during the Cold War (Sweden and Finland) asked to join, concerned they might become future Russian targets.
Ukraine was invaded by Russia after pro-Europeans came to power following the so-called Revolution of Dignity (Euromaidan). The movement broke out after Viktor Yanukovych’s pro-Russian regime, under immense pressure from Moscow, refused to sign the EU Association Agreement. Russia thus launched the war because the Ukrainian population had opted for rapprochement with the EU (not NATO), which represents democracy and prosperity in contrast to authoritarian Russia. For this reason, Putin perceives EU enlargement as a direct threat to his regime, which risks being challenged if Russians see that a former Soviet state can successfully transition to another system.
Western aid to Ukraine was designed to enable it to defend itself and to help its population survive under wartime conditions, especially since Ukraine’s economy and state revenues were severely affected: the industrial region of Donbas was largely occupied by Russia, infrastructure and industrial facilities as well as Ukrainian cities are under constant attacks, and exports have been disrupted by Russian strikes.
When Putin’s Russia and Trump’s America speak the same language
BACKGROUND: The SVR press release, issued “from sources” without citing any official document or indicating any European authority or institution to substantiate at least one of its claims, was published precisely on the day the Kremlin was secretly negotiating with Washington the peace plan for Ukraine, in its initial 28-point format.
Axios wrote exclusively about this on November 19, the very day of the SVR press release claiming Europe was preparing to withdraw support for Axios, which cited American and Russian sources, showed how the peace plan, if it remained in force, would redefine both the security framework of Europe and the future relations of the United States with Russia and Ukraine. An American official confirmed for Axios that the Trump administration had already begun informing European capitals about what was to follow regarding Ukraine.
In addition, the SVR press release, which linked the alleged withdrawal of European support to corruption in Ukraine, was published amid a major scandal of embezzlement of funds intended for energy infrastructure, a scandal involving close associates of president Zelensky and shaking Ukrainian society, already weakened and deeply vulnerable after enormous, painful and traumatizing losses accumulated in nearly four years of bloody war.
Last but not least, the Russian press release, which also spoke of apathy and low morale at the level of the Ukrainian army, was issued at a critical moment on the Ukrainian front, when Russian forces were advancing at the start of a winter expected to be harsh, especially as the United States was threatening Kyiv it would withdraw its support in the absence of a peace agreement that initially resembled more a surrender of Ukraine to Russia.
It should be emphasized that Trump capitalized on the existence of corruption in Ukraine (the very theme around which the Russians built their SVR press release) to tell Zelenskyy aboard Air Force One, only hours after US–Ukraine negotiations in Florida, that the corruption scandal triggered by Kyiv’s law enforcement institutions “was not helping” the Ukrainian president.
There is corruption in Ukraine, including among Zelenskyy’s associates, but also an institutional effort to combat it
GRAIN OF TRUTH: The only real elements in the SVR press release are those referring to the difficult situation on the Ukrainian front and to the anti-corruption institutions in Ukraine, which launched a broad investigation into the country’s energy sector, gravely affected by recent Russian airstrikes.
Conducted by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP), the investigation uncovered corruption cases involving even Zelenskyy’s friend, businessman Timur Mindich, who managed to leave the country just hours before searches were given the go-ahead.
However, the Ukrainian president publicly declared that any person involved in the corruption scandal would be held accountable. The Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s Parliament) dismissed the Ministers of Energy and Justice following the scandal, whom Zelenskyy himself called on to step down, and the investigation also targeted Andrii Yermak, Zelensky’s close associate and key figure in peace negotiations, who submitted his resignation.
The group of 7 defendants accused of a scheme of embezzlement and laundering €100 million is charged with manipulating contracts at Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear energy company, to obtain illegal fees and bonuses amounting to 10–15% of the contracts’ value.
The two institutions are also reportedly investigating the Ministry of Defense, which allegedly faced pressure to purchase Chinese military equipment of inferior quality but at overinflated prices.
Ukraine has also been shaken by other corruption scandals since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, involving embezzlement of funds received from European and Western allies (usually associated with purchasing military equipment, technical supplies or food at overpriced value) as well as bribes taken by heads of regional recruitment centers to exempt Ukrainian men from conscription.
Check sources:
