Over the last week Ukraine’s battered energy infrastructure has received yet another lethally effective pasting from Putin’s rockets and drones. Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, has been hit with an ugly corruption scandal in which some of his closest allies stand accused of war profiteering. His reaction was to travel to Paris to stand by Emmanuel Macron and sign a letter of intent to buy 100 French Rafale jets, as well as Ground Fire 300 radar and SAMP/T air-defence systems.

A few days before, Zelensky had also promised the Swedish government to buy 150 state-of-the art Gripen fighters. He also penned a deal with the Greeks to import American liquefied natural gas (LNG) to supply southwest Ukraine.

All this, on the face of it, sounds sensible enough. France has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies. Kyiv will doubtless need fighters for its future defence. And ending Ukraine’s dependence on cheap Russian gas has been a strategic ambition for a while now.

But there’s a fundamental problem: all these deals are just magical thinking. Kyiv doesn’t have nearly enough money to fill its $60bn budget black hole, let alone to buy billions in jets. Ukraine, by its own admission, is going to run out of money by February unless the EU agrees to raise a €140bn loan secured against Russian assets held mostly in Belgium’s Euroclear international banking repository.

But it has no hope of ever repaying that loan unless the Kremlin is somehow compelled to pay war reparations – a vanishingly remote possibility. This week, even as Zelensky and Macron viewed a parade and signed memoranda at Paris’ Villacoublay air base, France is still signalling it is against confiscating Russian assets, fearing legal repercussions and investors pulling their money from Europe.

The timing of the Kyiv corruption scandal, just as Zelensky is desperately seeking funding and weapons, could hardly be worse. Ukraine’s Western-backed, independent anti-corruption bureau NABU has accused several members of Zelensky’s inner circle of stealing $100m by taking kickbacks from the construction of air defences for Ukraine’s vulnerable nuclear power stations.

As the country faces increasing blackouts due to Russian strikes, that kind of alleged war profiteering is especially disgusting. And the fact that Zelensky attempted last July to shut down NABU’s investigations by bringing the agency under government control before street protests forced him to reverse his controversial law is not a good look.

Zelensky is haemorrhaging support at home. Loyal members of Zelensky’s own party have begun calling for the resignation of Andriy Yermak, the president’s right-hand man. Yermak had previously been chief counsel at Kvartal-95, the television production company founded by Zelensky and Timur Mindich – who stands at the centre of the NABU corruption case and who fled to Israel just hours before prosecutors raided his home. According to opposition MPs, trust in Zelensky has fallen to 20 per cent and nationalists are calling for “traitors” in his inner circle to be “liquidated”.

Meanwhile former Zelensky supporters like prominent Ukrainian activist and volunteer Serhii Sternenko have begun criticising Kyiv’s military and political leadership. “We are headed toward a disaster of strategic magnitude, which could lead to the loss of statehood,” warned Sternenko on Monday. “Our defence is falling apart.” The coming loss of the strategically important town of Pokrovsk and Russian advances into the far less well-fortified southern Zaporizhzhia region will be a body-blow to Ukraine’s defences.

Travelling around Europe signing fantasy arms deals Ukraine cannot afford is no answer to the looming political and military crisis at home. Zelensky’s behaviour is a worrying sign for all of Ukraine’s well-wishers, because it signals desperation. With the war entering its critical phase, international funds running out, desertions from Ukraine’s army running at four times the rate of last year, Russians advancing on the ground and the president’s political credibility in ruins, we should be very afraid for Ukraine’s future.

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