The FT article makes no accusations of embezzlement of weapons procurement funds by President Zelenskyy. Instead, the journalists conclude that Ukraine is attempting to recover lost funds through internal investigations and legal proceedings with foreign arms suppliers.
The narrative that the Ukrainian government is embezzling funds intended for weapons purchases is spreading virally on social media via a video alleging Ukraine’s “unwillingness” to end the war. The video claims that investigative journalists from the Financial Times discovered that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stole and transferred $770 million in budget funds intended for the Ukrainian army to his personal account.
‘Why stop the war and martial law when you can steal from the budget?’ This is how the authorities steal: not just kickbacks, but 100% kickbacks. They take money from the budget, send it to unknown companies, and in return there are no goods or money, yet Zelenskyy remains silent. Why? Because he gets a big cut and doesn’t want to end the war,’ the disinformation video falsely claims, citing a ‘Financial Times article’.
The creators of the disinformation videos refer to an investigation by the Financial Times, published in May 2025. However, the article, titled ‘How Ukraine lost hundreds of millions on arms deals gone wrong‘, makes no accusations of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy embezzling weapons procurement funds. The publication also makes no claims that Ukraine is trying to prolong the war; all such statements are pro-Russian disinformation aimed at undermining trust in Ukraine’s military and political leadership.
In reality, the Financial Times article does examine cases in which Ukraine did not receive weapons that had been ordered and paid for. According to anonymous sources within the Ukrainian government cited by the journalists, Ukraine has lost around $770 million paid in advance to foreign arms suppliers since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
According to the journalists, some contracts, including a 2022 deal for the supply of 120 mm mortars from Sudan, involved ‘sellers later found to have close ties to Russia’s FSB security service, as well as Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group’. According to the FT, most of these problematic deals were signed without thorough due diligence, due to weak internal transaction controls and a rush to secure financing.
According to the FT, dozens of Ukrainian officials involved in such contracts have been dismissed and are under investigation. Some of these contracts have become the subject of criminal proceedings by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau, which is investigating the whereabouts of some of the funds paid to foreign suppliers. It is also reported that Ukraine intends to recover its money through legal action. The FT reports that the state-owned company Spetstechnoexport has filed a claim in the London Court of International Arbitration to recover $346 million from the American company Regulus Global, which promised to deliver tens of thousands of 155 mm artillery shells to Ukraine.
Russian media outlets, as well as pro-Kremlin bots and bloggers, have repeatedly circulated fake stories claiming that Ukraine is ’embezzling’ military budgets and ‘reselling’ Western weapons. StopFake has also debunked this narrative in Fake: Ukrainian Officials Sell Javelins to Hamas and Hezbollah Militants.
