corruption is less

Would you tell me please if this the usage of less on its own like that makes (grammatical) sense?

“Corruption is less because the survival of the nation is at stake,” <...> “We’re at a higher level of unity and selflessness than I’ve seen since I’ve lived here.”
Opinion | Ukraine Is Weakened by Corruption, So How Is It Stymieing the Russians?

I would certainly prefer it as “there is less corruption”, but there’s nothing horribly wrong with it as it stands, even though you could argue that it should be lower rather than less.

Please note that that link is to a site that requires a subscription, so not all of us can access the article.

It sounds a little strange to me, but I could see a native speaker off the cuff saying "less" instead of "lower" (which I think would be better here).

cross posted

lingobingo said:

I would certainly prefer it as “there is less corruption”, but there’s nothing horribly wrong with it as it stands, even though you could argue that it should be lower rather than less.

Cet said:

It sounds a little strange to me, but I could see a native speaker off the cuff saying "less" instead of "lower" (which I think would be better here).

cross posted

I thought the meaning was rather something like corruption is less important.🤔 IMO it fitted the context.

lingobingo said:

Please note that that link is to a site that requires a subscription, so not all of us can access the article.

Sorry, somehow I'm able to read it without subscription. I thought it was not only me.

I was able to access the article once, then when I went back to look at it again I got a pop-up message saying I had reached my limit of free articles. Just to have a little fun with the sentence though...

Like lingobingo said, you can say "There is less corruption," and if you've already mentioned corruption, you can even leave it out, as in "There has always been a lot of corruption. There is less now because..." However, just as you can't say "Corruption is little," you can't really say "Corruption is less." You can, on the other hand, say "There is little corruption these days," just as you can say "There is less corruption these days." If you want to start with corruption though, I really think you need to say "Corruption is low" (or if you don't want to paint too rosy a picture, "Corruption is lower").

I'm not really going anywhere with any of that. I just think it's neat.

More to the point, I think, is the fact that the phrase in question is a direct quote from [retired] American journalist Brian Bonner, formerly of the Kyiv Post. I’m not sure that we should be “correcting” what people come out with in press interviews at all? 👁 Wink ;)

Let me offer you a different angle. The article provides theories (subheadings) on how Ukraine has managed to stymie the Russian invasion despite its state of corruption. One of those is: Ukraine has become a little less corrupt. So this point has already been mentioned in the article. But the phrase in question is under another subheading: Ukrainians are railling around their flag.
The below is the paragraph a question. Does it look like they may have simply left out the word important / crucial / vital?
👁 IMG_20230202_021257.jpg

Cet said:

I was able to access the article once, then when I went back to look at it again I got a pop-up message saying I had reached my limit of free articles. Just to have a little fun with the sentence though...

As for now, I still can open this and other articles on that website. Looks like my limit was not so soon.

More to the point, I think, is the fact that the phrase in question is a direct quote from [retired] American journalist Brian Bonner, formerly of the Kyiv Post. I’m not sure that we should be “correcting” what people come out with in press interviews at all? 👁 Wink ;)

Well if you want to take the fun out of life, sure...

The below is the paragraph a question. Does it look like they may have simply left out the word important / crucial / vital?

It's possible he was thinking "less prevalent" or "less rampant," some adjective denoting the amount of corruption, especially since "less" sort of includes that idea (amount). I highly doubt he'd leave out an adjective like "vital" or "important" though, something describing its significance.