Where were those “journalists of integrity” for the past 2 years? Those are the same people that were writing the nonsense all the time.

Probably fearing reprisal from the government. Zelensky's government has a tight grip on the news and media, they are from the media industry themselves, they know how important and powerful it can be. They banned all TV channels except their own, Telemaraton or something like that. They put restrictions on what newspapers can publish and limit access to areas, like the front line.

Some Ukrainian journalists have also warned that military handlers’ tight oversight of journalists is skewing coverage of the war. “If a soldier tells me, ‘I hate this war so much,’ the press officer asks him to reply, ‘Yes, the war is hard, but we are keeping our spirits up,’” Skyba, a freelancer who regularly works with Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper, told the Committee to Protect Journalists.

That is the narrative much of the Ukrainian public is getting. Following Russia’s invasion, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered a 24-hour, unified “news telethon” in which some of the country’s major broadcasters — two that are public and the rest owned by oligarchs — provide war coverage in alternating, six-hour blocks. Late last year, Zelenskyy also signed legislation giving the government vast powers over the media; the European Federation of Journalists had called an early draft of the bill “worthy of the worst authoritarian regimes.” Source

the reality is already so visible that literally no one is buying the previous stories anymore

That too. It has become ridiculous to pretend Ukraine is winning when Russians are taking more territory every day. Everyone sees the Kursk excursion for what it is, and that it in no way challenges Russia or has any chance of causing "unrest that will topple Putin" inside of Russia. Russia has cut down Ukraine's electricity production by some 75%. People are most likely running out of money to pay for fuel for their generators. Men are being snatched off the street and being sent to the front as literal cannon fodder. You see a few of them run away and about the same number where people fight the TCC officers.

The "internal struggle" is the people of Ukraine fighting against their government that has decided to sacrifice them for US/NATO interests.

I suspect it's actually both, the reality is so bad that it's impossible to pretend that there's any chance of victory, and that's undermining the existing power structures leading to an internal struggle as people see the opportunity to grab power for themselves.