Ukrainian soldiers addicted to gambling? This is what a petition spotted by The worldhaving collected 25,000 signatures in a few hours, the necessary threshold for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to examine it.
The petition was written by Ukrainian unit commander Pavlo Petrychenko. Its goal: to push the president to legislate against online gambling sites which would wreak havoc on Ukrainian soldiers.
“The only way to cope with stress”
According to the commander, these games represent for some soldiers “the only way to cope with stress”, while they have been away from their families for more than two years “without the possibility of properly resting, which makes them particularly vulnerable on the psychological level”, as reported The world.
He adds that it is not uncommon for players to spend all their money on these online games and take out microcredits, plunging them and their families into a “debt pit”. Some would even pawn drones and cameras, putting their companions at risk.
A risk of threat to the security of the country
Knowing that “many Russian online casinos target Ukrainian consumers to access the personal data of military personnel and other citizens”, Pavlo Petrychenko is also concerned about the risk of a “direct threat to the country’s national security”.
The petition caused a lot of reaction on social networks, with some believing that the phenomenon was very real while others found it totally exaggerated.
At the beginning of April, Zelensky explained that he was preparing measures to control the industry and “contribute to properly protecting the interests of society”.