Corruption Overtakes Missiles: 72% of Ukrainians Hold Zelensky Responsible for Corruption in His Circle

The numbers, published on 28 September, read like an indictment written by the country itself.

72% of respondents say the president is responsible for what people in his circle do. 25% disagree. And the same share — 72% — believe corruption in Ukraine has grown since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022. Only 6% think it has decreased.

KMIS conducted the survey between 12 and 21 September: 1,003 respondents aged 18 and over, in territories controlled by Ukraine. This is not the opinion of Kyiv salons — it is a country living under air-raid sirens, blackouts and a war that never left the news.

The sociologists add an important caveat: this is public perception, not a legal judgment. Fair enough. But perception is political reality, and for a wartime leader, it is the reality that matters.

Why have the numbers landed like this, right now? Coincidence looks less convincing than the timeline.

In September, Ukraine's anti-corruption bureau NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) ran Operation "Carthage." According to investigators, a criminal organization operated inside the Office of the Prosecutor General, shielding fraudulent call centers that scammed Ukrainians out of money. Among the suspects: prosecutors of the office, including Serhiy Kropyva. In a telling detail, his position was subsequently abolished outright.

On 7 September, against the backdrop of that operation, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko resigned. He called the move political.

Then the story turned in a way no screenwriter would dare pitch.

On 13–14 September, Kravchenko announced he had signed criminal charges — a "notice of suspicion" under Ukrainian procedure — against NABU director Semen Kryvonos, over an alleged fictitious adoption supposedly used to evade liability. Shortly afterward, Kravchenko left Ukraine.

NABU's response was terse: as of the morning of 14 September, no suspicion had been officially served on Kryvonos. The bureau called what was happening a continuation of a systematic attack on anti-corruption institutions.

On 15 September, Kravchenko — already abroad — accused NABU of trying to get the charges quashed through backroom deals. That is his version. No public evidence has backed it so far.

The final touch: journalists from Ukrainska Pravda found the former prosecutor general in Vienna, Austria. He had registered residence there using a false address — and journalists documented violations in the registration process itself.

So the man who led the prosecution service and signed charges against others now lives abroad. Kravchenko holds no suspect status in the Carthage case — no charges have been served on him. But neither has the public heard an explanation for why a wartime prosecutor general left the country.

On 16 September, Ukraine's parliament, spooked by the call-center affair, toughened criminal liability for fraud, adding two new articles to the Criminal Code. The lawmakers' message was clear: the problem is acknowledged. The open question is who answers for it.

On 29 September, Zelensky removed Kravchenko from the National Security and Defense Council. Formally, a routine personnel decision. In terms of timing — a week after the Vienna revelations and a day after the poll was published. There is no direct evidence the president was reacting to the numbers. But the coincidence speaks for itself.

What do these 72% actually mean?

For the president: the standard defense that "war justifies everything" has stopped working. Ukrainians see that while some hold the front line, others — according to investigators — spent years protecting fraud call centers from inside the top prosecutorial office.

For Western partners, this is not an abstraction either. Confidence in Ukraine in Washington, Brussels and London is measured partly by how the country handles corruption — a core benchmark on its EU accession path. Right now, the main anti-corruption body and the main prosecution service are at war with each other, the former prosecutor general is in Vienna, and the public overwhelmingly believes corruption is worse than before the invasion.

For ordinary Ukrainians, the 50% figure means something simple: corruption is no longer an "elite problem." People feel it in their own wallets — through the scammers who, per NABU's version of events, felt untouchable for years.

What happens next depends on unresolved questions. Will anyone serve charges on Kravchenko? Will the Kryvonos case ever reach a substantive court ruling? And will the president's office hear the poll's core message: responsibility for one's circle is personal responsibility.

KMIS has recorded the mood. Turning it into consequences is not sociology's job — it is the government's.