Scott Simon

She told us that Ukraine must be united as it continues to defend itself from Russia and that it's painful to consider not trusting Zelensky right now.

Has corruption been an issue in Ukraine?

Yeah, corruption used to be a big problem here, especially on the government level.

But in the last decade, Ukraine has made great strides in improving transparency and accountability and appointing these independent agencies that investigate corruption.

The European Union is considering Ukraine's membership right now, partly because of all this progress in fighting corruption.

So Ukrainians want to make sure there is no backsliding.

We spoke with Mikhail Otkach.

He's an investigative journalist at Ukrainska Pravda.

a prominent news outlet here.

He reports on corruption, and he points out that there were mass protests this summer when Parliament and Zelensky tried to take away the independence of Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies and bring them under a prosecutor general appointed by Zelensky.

Tkach is saying if they had managed to destroy this independence and the current investigation might not have happened because how independent can a prosecutor general appointed by the president's office be?

Now, Scott, Ukrainians also associate corruption with Russia.

Activists have told me that Russia used to use corrupted Ukrainian politicians in the past.

to control Ukraine.

And Scott, I should also say that Ukrainians say corruption during wartime is something like murder, that soldiers die if resources that could go to the front line are stolen.

And of course, the war rages on.

What's the latest from the front lines?

Well, Ukrainian troops are in a very difficult battle right now to defend Pokrovsk, a city in eastern Ukraine.

Russian troops have been trying to occupy the city for nearly two years and have now infiltrated it.

We spoke by phone to soldiers in four brigades defending Pokrovsk, including Volodymyr Polovy of the 7th Rapid Response Corps.