Kim Barker

But at the same time, you've got this issue along the front lines where you've got not enough troops.

And then you've got on a nightly basis this barrage of missiles and drones coming in and attacking civilian targets.

I mean, universally, the word that we heard over and over again was capitulation.

I heard it from people who were waiting for their relatives, their dead relatives to be taken out of this building that had been hit by missiles a couple days before.

Capitulation and disgust.

And the idea that like, no, we have lost too much blood.

The idea that we're just going to give up everything we've been fighting for, for nothing.

No.

And also, at the same time, you have to understand that this proposal is coming along when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could not be in a weaker position politically because of this corruption scandal, you know, that's unfolded in the last couple of weeks.

So tell us about that.

Where does that story start?

Well, that story starts about 15 months ago when an investigation called Operation Midas started into a company called Energo Atom,

which is this nuclear power giant in Ukraine.

And it's a state-owned company.

And the country's anti-corruption agencies have been investigating this company for about 15 months.

They've got wiretaps of like more than a thousand hours.

And they're basically looking at

Key allies of President Zelensky who are accused of embezzling $100 million from this company.

And it first comes out into public knowledge on Monday morning, November 10th, when the country's anti-corruption agencies unveiled the series of videos outlining a huge corruption scheme and their investigation work.

And then over the next two days, these videos unroll every few hours, giving more and more salacious details.