ENTRE News – Ukrainian soldiers are said to have become addicted to online gambling while serving amid the Russian invasion and the ups and downs of the global economy. Some soldiers are also said to be in debt and selling drones and thermal imaging cameras to fulfill their online gambling desires. Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko said nine out of ten frontline soldiers were gambling addicts.
“This is a problem that is now destroying military morale,” he said in a post on Telegram.
The press officer for Ukraine’s Aidar battalion, Ivan Zadonstev, said one of the soldiers in his unit won 2.5 million hryvnia or around IDR 24 billion from online gambling.
“He believed he could win more and that’s why he lost everything, up to 400 hryvnia,” he told AFP last week.
Another soldier won a jackpot of 60 million hryvnia or around IDR 973 billion from gambling. According to Zadontsev, the relatively high salaries of soldiers may be the reason why many personnel are addicted to gambling. Soldiers’ salaries on the battlefield are six times the national wage, namely 120,000 hryvnia or around Rp. 48 million.
Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Veterans Affairs, Oksana Syvak, also said that such a trend among Ukrainian soldiers was a psychological impact of the war that lasted more than two years. In these difficult times, he continued, people often drank alcohol, consumed illegal drugs, smoked marijuana, and even became addicted to online gambling.
“This is a consequence of war, gambling is an escape from reality, a secondary reaction to severe trauma,” Syvak said.
The debate about online gambling addiction among soldiers emerged after junior Sergeant Pavlo Petrychenko warned President Volodymyr Zelensky about the condition of Ukrainian personnel in the form of a petition last April. In the petition, he said online gambling is increasing among personnel.
“For many people, gambling is the only way to deal with stress,” Petrychenko said in the petition, quoted by AFP FOR4D.
The petition reached 26,000 supporters in a few days and received Zelensky’s response. On April 20, Zelensky signed a decree banning soldiers from online gambling during wartime, limiting advertising, launching a national campaign against the negative effects of online gambling, and blocking all illegal sites. Ukraine’s Ministry of Health will also launch a treatment strategy to combat online gambling addiction.