Zelensky Chastises Citizens for Dancing and Drinking During War

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged his citizens to not party it up while the country is at war after footage from nightlife in Kyiv has gone viral on social media.

In a video address to the nation, President Zelensky said that anyone who is not actively fighting the war against Russia should be using their energy to help the war effort in other ways, rather than drinking and dancing in nightclubs in Kyiv.

“Warriors from the frontline who come to the rear cities deserve to see and feel that these are rear cities. That people live there, remembering that there are warriors there, that our warriors here in Donetsk and other directions are fighting for Ukraine, giving their lives for Ukraine. Freedom and independence are not gained by someone there… at the front,” he said per state media Ukrinform.

“This is a common national cause of all those who are fighting and working for victory. Everyone is at war. Ukraine is at war. And those who are not fighting on the frontline must help fight. Not in bars, not in clubs, not by street racing or some kind of ostentatious consumption, but by helping the warriors in a very specific way.”

The comments from Zelesnsky came amid several viral posts on social media showing young people enjoying themselves in the capital city of Kyiv. Besides some early fighting last year and periodic air raids, the city has not been hit as hard by the war as many cities, which have been reduced to rubble.

To date, the United States has poured $113 billion into Ukraine in the form of weapons, military equipment and other aid. Despite growing opposition to the war, the Biden administration is currently pushing for an additional $24 billion for the country.

The comments from Zelensky also come just days after the government exposed a massive corruption ring in which military recruiters have been accepting bribes from men to avoid being drafted into the military. Reports have claimed that officers have regularly accepted payoffs between $2,000 and $10,000 to help men avoid fighting in the war against Russia, including fabricating false medical documents or other excuses.

Not that nightclubs have been great places for the young to get away from the war of late. A report on draft-dodging in Ukraine in UK left-leaning publication The Guardian reports how one nightclub in Kyiv was raided by recruitment officers this summer, who ordered all women to leave the venue and then handed callup papers to all of the men left inside.

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