Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday he would tolerate no corruption or treachery in affairs of state while his country is struggling to find the means to defend itself against Russian invaders.
  • AWildMimicAppears@kbin.social
    4114·
    1 year ago

    Ukraine has come a long way in fighting their corruption issues (which were in part caused by russian loyalists). I really hope they can kick out Putin quick and then join the EU.

    • Blursty@lemmygrad.ml
      2330·
      1 year ago

      It’s even more corrupt now that it’s ever been. What made you think it was improving?

      • pingveno@lemmy.mlEnglish
        195·
        1 year ago

        What is your source for it being more corrupt than it’s ever been before? This directly contradicts the data from Transparency International’s corruption perception poll, which shows that it’s the best it’s ever been, but still bad. There has also been pressure by the EU to reduce corruption as part of the roadway to EU membership. The US has also been apply pressure for going on a decade. Recently, this has resulted in several high profile indictments against high ranking officials.

        War tends to make corruption harder to tackle. Everything is so focused on war efforts that a bribe here or there seems trivial in comparison. You also have a tremendous number of displaced people, which make them vulnerable. The resolution of the Russo-Ukrainian War will make corruption much easier to tackle.

        • zer0@thelemmy.clubEnglish
          1012·
          1 year ago

          The less democracy the more corruption. They are under martial law, their government right now is on pair with a dictatorship. Remember that no male between 18 and 60 can leave the country and if they try to do they would get arrested.

          • pingveno@lemmy.mlEnglish
            63·
            1 year ago

            I gotta say, I’ve not been thrilled with how Zelenskyy has dealt with political freedoms in the country. When you claim to be the bulwark of liberal democracy, you better be hewing to those claims very strongly. Banning political parties is impossible to square with that. Conscription though? That I can understand. For Ukraine, this is total war, and it’s not a war of choice like with Russia.

            • Blursty@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
              36·
              1 year ago

              They chose to go to war. They chose to have a civil war against minorities who wanted self-determination to escape the Nazi coup regime that illegally installed a dictator.

              Russia did not choose this war and spent years trying to avoid it. Hollande and Merkel have admitted that they lied and were trying to get the war started.

              • pingveno@lemmy.mlEnglish
                33·
                1 year ago

                Russia was invading Ukraine before the post-Maiden revolution government had the chance to get its pants on. Russia’s “little green men” were rolling onto Ukrainian soil far before the Kyiv government could possibly have done anything. Russia saw a moment of chaos and took advantage of it.

        • Blursty@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
          812·
          1 year ago

          That’s the corruption perception index. It asks people from the country what their perception is. It’s not at all reliable, especially during war. The reports of massive amounts of money going missing. Arms and munitions being sold, some even showing up in South America. The country is run by a massive fascist crook who’s named in the Panama papers… man if you think it’s come a long way in fighting corruption I don’t know what to tell you.

          The resolution of the Russo-Ukrainian War will make corruption much easier to tackle.

          Agreed.

          • pingveno@lemmy.mlEnglish
            43·
            1 year ago

            Perception trends at least tell us something, especially when a country is compared with itself over time. Ukraine’s has improved remarkably. Yes there are limits to perception polls, but that is one of the few universal metrics.

            As for Zelensky, a few things. First, he was in the Pandora Papers, not the Panama Papers. Second, just because someone is in either the Pandora or Panama Papers does not mean that they were engaged in wrongdoing. So for now, I’m withholding judgement on him being a “massive fascist crook”.

  • knexcar@kbin.social
    219·
    1 year ago

    It’s surprising seeing so much Ukraine hate in one comments section. Did something major happen that changed public opinion?

      • Addfwyn@lemmy.ml
        132·
        1 year ago

        which by some weird thought process becomes a pro-Russian position.

        I am a communist and the prevailing attitude in most circles I am in is not an explicitly pro-Russian one, it’s just not explicitly pro-Ukraine either. There is a also an underlying understanding of the reasons why the war started. Just because you don’t support one side does not mean you have to 100% uncritically support the opposing side. The sooner we stop thinking of everything in black/white terms of Team A vs Team B, we will be a lot better off.

        Now there are those who have nostalgia for the USSR, which is not the modern Russian Federation, but it’s fairly niche. Usually people understand that modern Russia is not the soviet union. There are the patsocs too, but we don’t really claim them.

        I am not the Official Spokesman of Communism, but those are generally the attitudes I have seen in most of my circles.

        • Akasazh@lemmy.ml
          11·
          1 year ago

          Fairly niche? Most of the lemmygrad people are outright idolizing every totalitarian ‘marxist’ regime of the past century.

          I totally get left ideology and do agree with Marx’ ideology, but I’ve never understood how simping for autocrats fits into that.

          When I read that Lemmy had an active communist group I was looking forward to that, but the vehemence of the debate and the apologetic whitewashing of history really turned me off.

          So yeah, please a debate that isn’t so black and white is very welcome imho.

      • boredtortoise@lemm.ee
        95·
        1 year ago

        Communists are very against fascist Russia. It’s just a small totalitarian-minded group masking as communists here who support Russia or some honeypot/psyop

          • awwwyissss@lemm.ee
            64·
            1 year ago

            Why not? No doubt it’s way easier to set up a bunch of bots accounts here than somewhere like Twitter or Reddit. They don’t even have to worry about looking legit because most of the users here are new accounts.

    • ArxCyberwolf@lemmy.ca
      207·
      1 year ago

      This is lemmy.ml, which is full of clueless tankies who confuse modern fascist Russia with the Soviet Union and love to consume Russian and Chinese propaganda. Anything “Western” is automatically bad and evil (those damn Anglos or something) and since Ukraine is backed by NATO, it has to be the bad guy. Take a wild guess at what the “.ml” means.

    • Lotus Eater@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      52·
      1 year ago

      Public opinion only gets more positive for Ukraine with each of these high level corruption arrests.

      Tankies and dumbasses, think it proves their point that Ukraine will continue to be corrupt.

    • zer0@thelemmy.club
      1016·
      1 year ago

      I guess what changed is that you are not on reddit anymore where nations advertise their propaganda. Ukraine government declared martial law, they are basically a dictatorship.

    • cnnrduncan@beehaw.orgEnglish
      161·
      1 year ago

      Really? He’s equally as bad as the guy responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths due to invading a few neighbouring countries?

      Not denying that Ukraine and Zelensky have their fair share of issues but I reckon saying they’re just as bad as Putin is more than a little bit disingenuous.

      • OrangeSlice@lemmy.mlEnglish
        43·
        1 year ago

        Like I mentioned in my other comment, I think that both leaders can and should be criticized independently, a comparison between the two is not useful.

        Neither leader is socialist, so in my opinion, neither truly has the best interest of their country’s working class at heart. There could be some observation and speculation about how the possible outcomes of the conflict could promote socialist aims, but that is still independent of both guy themselves.

      • zer0@thelemmy.clubEnglish
        26·
        1 year ago

        Does it makes a difference if you kill one person or 100? For charts maybe but you are still a murderer even if you kill a bunch. All politicians have blood in their hands, they don’t fight their wars, we do it for them and we get forced to do it. Ukraine is under martial law, males between 18 and 60 can’t leave the country.

        • cnnrduncan@beehaw.orgEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          Do you really think that killing in order to defend yourself and others is the exact same thing as killing in support of ideologies such as fascism or imperialism? Iraqis defending themselves against Americans and Georgians defending themselves against Russians is morally identical to killing children because they speak the wrong language, worship the wrong god, or have skin that’s the wrong colour?