What Republic of Utopia are you from? By those standards, the Ukrainian people should be punished for their persistent history of corruption. After all, in 2014, Ukraine was parallel with Nigeria on a global corruption index - and it has been significantly below too. As for the Ukrainians doing "a lot" to fight corruption, it seems not yet to have worked so well. Zelensky himself is featured in the Pandora Papers[0] where he is believed to have participated in the offshoring of 41 million. His closest associate, whose private ski resort he was visiting just before the invasion, was Kolomoyskyi - who has been sanctioned by the united states and had 2billion in assets seized. In 2018, he stated to journalists that Ukraine needed to "return to Russia"[1]. A strange creature to associate with.

I do not disparage Ukraine or its leaders. I do not support Russia. But it isn't all so simple.

1. https://archive.ph/3IbFz

2. https://www.occrp.org/en/the-pandora-papers/pandora-papers-r...

"Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful."

Friedrich Nietzsche