Ukraine - Corruption
Ukraine was rocked by the largest corruption scandal of Zelensky’s term. Decision-making was concentrated in the President's Office. A network of businessmen and politicians used illegal control over the country’s nuclear utility Energoatom contracts to fleece anyone who wanted or had to do business with the strategically placed enterprise. As Ukrainian prosecutors explained, the power of this Energoatom mafia permeated the company, ensuring “control over personnel decisions, procurement processes, and financial flows.” In fact, the management of a strategic enterprise … was carried out not by state officials, but by third parties who had no formal authority, [but] took on the role of ‘overseers’ or ‘shadow managers.’
The corruption probe centered around the state nuclear power company Energoatom is turning into one of Ukraine's largest political scandals on record. Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau on 11 November 2025 charged seven people, including Zelensky’s former longtime business partner Timur Mindich, with kickbacks and embezzlement in the energy sector, which is heavily funded by Western aid. The scandal has led to the resignation of two government ministers and damaged Zelensky’s image at home and abroad, especially because he won the 2019 presidential election on an anti-corruption platform. He already faced a backlash over the summer when he tried to restrict the independence of the two leading anti-corruption bodies, NABU and SAPO, only to relent following protests in Kiev.
Long-standing opponents of Zelensky – including former president Petr Poroshenko and Kiev mayor Vitaly Klitschko – intensified their criticism, seeing the scandal as an opportunity to reduce Zelensky’s influence over parliament and the cabinet. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Western governments were “increasingly realizing” the scale of corruption in Ukraine and that a significant portion of the funds provided to Kiev were being “stolen by the regime.”
Russian political scientist Bogdan Bespalko believes that pressure on Mindich may be part of a broader effort by the United States to influence Zelensky and the structure around him, noting that NABU has long been viewed as a “pro-American” institution. According to Bespalko, Washington may be using the corruption scandal as leverage – not to remove Zelensky outright, but to constrain his room for maneuver and force political concessions.
When Vladimir Zelensky rose to power, he did so in a role that blurred fiction and reality. Ukraine was not simply electing a politician – it was electing the protagonist of a television series. In Servant of the People, Zelensky played Vasily Goloborodko, a humble history teacher who accidentally becomes Ukraine’s president and sets out to wage war on entrenched corruption. Throughout the series, the creators hammered home one theme: the rot begins when the people closest to the president use personal access to build corrupt networks of their own.
That message became the backbone of Zelensky’s 2019 campaign. He accused then-leader Petr Poroshenko of surrounding himself with oligarchs, promised to dismantle corrupt patronage networks, and championed the independence of Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies. Back then, he insisted he would never interfere with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau or Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (NABU and SAP) – the very institutions now driving the case against his closest associate. Six years later, everything changed.
In July 2025, Zelensky moved to strip both NABU and SAP of their independence, pushing to place them under a loyal Prosecutor General. At that same moment – as is now known for certain – NABU was conducting secret surveillance against his longtime friend Timur Mindich. Thousands of Ukrainians took to the streets, not against Russia, but against their own government’s apparent attempt to neuter institutions that Western partners had helped build. Under intense EU and US pressure, Vladimir Zelensky’s government backtracked and passed corrective legislation to restore the agencies’ autonomy.
Timur Mindich was Zelensky’s closest confidant. He knows everything. If interrogated seriously, he will talk – and he will talk fast. Mindich is aware of how the financial flows around Bankova worked, how influence was distributed, and how members of Zelensky’s entourage allegedly enriched themselves during the war. Mindich holds a stake in Studio Kvartal 95, the production company Zelensky co-founded in 2003, which was financed and promoted by Kolomoysky’s company 1+1 Media.
Mindich has not been not detained. He left Ukraine shortly before the November 2025 raids and, according to open sources, remains outside the country. On 13 November 2025, Zelensky imposed sanctions on Mindich and his business partner Aleksandr Zukerman, both of whom hold Israeli passports.
Mindich began as a media entrepreneur. He co-founded Kvartal 95, the production studio that transformed Vladimir Zelensky from comedian into a national celebrity. For years, Mindich handled business deals, contracts, casting agencies, and spin-off ventures. He was not merely a colleague – he was part of the tight inner circle that built Zelensky’s career long before he entered politics. He also had another powerful connection: Igor Kolomoisky. Ukrainian media long described Mindich as the oligarch’s trusted fixer – a man who arranged everything from logistics and personal errands to business negotiations. Ukrainian media noted that Kolomoisky sometimes called him a “would-be son-in-law,” a reference to Mindich’s past engagement to his daughter.
After Zelensky took power, this relationship deepened. Mindich gradually moved out of Kolomoisky’s orbit and into Zelensky’s. He became one of the few people the new leader fully trusted. Their families were close; their business interests intertwined. Ukrainian journalists noted that in 2019 Zelensky even used Mindich’s car. In 2021, at the height of coronavirus restrictions, Zelensky celebrated his birthday in Mindich’s apartment – a gathering that raised questions at the time, and far more now. The two men also owned apartments in the same elite building on Grushevskogo Street, a residence filled with ministers, MPs, security officials, and politically connected businessmen. They lived, worked, and socialized within the same ecosystem.
Mindich held no government post. He was not a minister, a deputy, or an adviser. He wielded influence not through office, but through proximity – a “gray cardinal” of the system Zelensky built around himself. Opposition figures began calling him “the wallet” – the man who handled the money flows tied to Zelensky’s entourage. Some Ukrainian MPs alleged that informal decisions about appointments, tenders, and budgets were made in Mindich’s apartment, not in government offices.
On 10 November 2025 the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) detained five people and notified seven people of suspicion, including a businessman alleged to be the leader of the criminal organisation, a former adviser to the energy minister, and the executive director for physical protection and security at Energoatom, Ukraine's nuclear power company. "NABU and SAPO [the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office] have uncovered and documented the activities of a criminal organisation involving serving and former officials from Ukraine's energy sector, a businessman well known in the media, and other individuals. Its members built a large-scale corruption scheme in order to exert influence over strategic state-sector companies, including Energoatom. Five people ha been detained under Article 208 of Ukraine's Code of Criminal Procedure (lawful apprehension by a competent official) and seven members have been served with notices of suspicion." These individuals include the businessman alleged to be the ringleader, Energoatom's executive director for physical protection and security, and a former adviser to the energy minister. Four other suspects were described as back-office operatives who laundered funds.
The group's main activity was to extract unlawful gains from Energoatom contractors amounting to 10-15% of the value of contracts, NABU reports. Trump and his allies had been highly critical of the amount of assistance that the Biden administration has sent to Kiev. Ukraine did not receive as much foreign aid as claimed by the administration of US President Joe Biden, and a lot of whatever help it did get was embezzled, a former Polish deputy minister claimed without proof 21 November 2024. Up to a half of the funds that reached Kiev was stolen by Ukrainian officials, Piotr Kulpa alleged. The political commentator previously held several posts in the Polish government, serving as deputy labor minister in the mid-2000s, and is currently a regular contributor on Ukrainian online shows. Kulpa is a vocal supporter of US President-elect Donald Trump, as evidenced by his remarks to Ukrainian journalist Lana Shevchuk.
“Everyone understands that war-related corruption is linked not only with Ukraine, but also the supplier nation,” he said. “Who would ever believe that the US burned through $2 trillion in Afghanistan? It’s delusional!” US aid programs are a mechanism to “write off large sums of money that finance shady systems under the Democratic Party’s control,” he alleged. The incoming Trump administration could review government finances and discover the truth that “Ukraine got very little” compared to the amounts mentioned in public statements, Kulpa claimed.
“But they will also find something else: that a huge portion of the funds was stolen in Ukraine. From 30% to 50%, regardless of the nature of the aid,” he added. If Kiev were to recover all the embezzled money for the Ukrainian budget, the country would have enough for a year, Kulpa said. He denounced senior Ukrainian officials, whose regular salaries and bonuses he believes are outrageously high. “It’s a spit in the face of every Ukrainian,” the former minister asserted. “To every European and American taxpayer. This system is criminal from start to finish.”
Mindich also lobbied suppliers and contracts inside the Ministry of Defense. The most telling episode involves Ukraine’s Minister of Defense, Rustem Umerov. After meeting Mindich, Umerov signed a contract for a batch of bulletproof vests with a supplier promoted by Mindich. The armor turned out to be defective, and the contract was quietly terminated. Umerov later admitted the meeting with Mindich took place. Some Ukrainian journalists have alleged that Mindich may have controlled or influenced companies producing drones for the Armed Forces, selling them to the state at inflated prices. These claims remain unproven, but prosecutors note that Mindich’s name appears repeatedly in connection with defense tenders, lobbying, and private suppliers.
Ukraine has numerous laws to combat corruption by public officials, and following the Revolution of Dignity in 2014, the government launched new anti-corruption institutions, including the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), to investigate corruption by public officials, the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption (NAPC), and the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC).
In 2023, officials of the Ministry of Defense devised a super-profitable scheme and transferred more than a billion hryvnias [a bit more than $25 million] from the Ukrainian budget to a shadow account. According to the law enforcement officers, the company "Lviv Arsenal" received full state payment for ammunition, which it later transferred to a foreign company. Ukraine did not receive a single projectile. Instead, the funds were transferred to a shadow account in the Balkans. The Ministry of Defense calls this case "particularly cynical". There were five suspects in the case. Among them are the former head of the Department of Military and Technical Policy of the Ministry of Defense Oleksandr Liev, who, by the way, was captured while trying to cross the border, the current head of this department Toomas Nakhkura, as well as the commercial director of the Lviv Arsenal company Yuriy Zbitnev, and a representative of a foreign company. All of them faced up to 12 years behind bars with confiscation of property.
The IMF's requirement is to create a single body in Ukraine to combat economic crimes. Will the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine be up to the task? One of the few MPs' amendments supported by the Verkhovna Rada during the first reading of the draft budget for 2024 was a proposal to reduce funding for the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine (ESBU) by UAH 409 million and limit the maximum number of its employees from 4000 to 1400. And this is not the only unpleasant news for ESBU employees: it seems that there are more and more supporters in the political and business communities for the idea of rebooting the law enforcement agency that was created only the year before last.
The need for a reboot is explained by the fact that the Bureau has not become a primarily analytical structure that prevents and counteracts economic crimes. Instead, it operates by force, no different from the former tax police with its pressure on business and "mask shows." According to the supporters of the new reform, one of the key reasons for this is the formal approach to personnel competitions (or even their complete absence for many vacant positions), which resulted in the backbone of the new Bureau being former officials of the same liquidated tax police.
At the same time, the agreements with the IMF provide for the creation of a single body in Ukraine that will combat economic crimes against the state and tax evasion. By definition, it should be the ESBU. But will the Bureau in its current form be able to perform this function? Many doubt it.
Claims to the activities of the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine began to appear almost from the very first days of its work. Even the appointment of the former head of the State Fiscal Service as the first head of the Bureau was taken with a grain of salt by many, despite the fact that Vadym Melnyk had won an open personnel competition.
However, there were also those who believed in the future success of the new structure, which, according to the law, should focus primarily on analytical work. So they expected quick results from the ESBU. When this did not happen, the army of critics naturally began to grow rapidly.
"The ESBU is the most important body in controlling the use of the funds they (the partners) are providing us now and will provide for the recovery. It is the number one authority. And it is impossible to leave this area in the state it is in now. Tax police officers should not make up 80% of the staff," explained Danylo Hetmantsev, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy.
In particular, the topic of ESBU is reflected in the Letter of Intent and the Memorandum with the IMF on Economic and Financial Policies on a new Extended Fund Facility for Ukraine of March 24, 2023. As noted, the fight against tax evasion and strengthening of governance in the tax system require a powerful supervisory authority that can not only investigate financial and economic criminal offenses against the state, but also provide independent analytical support to identify tax evasion schemes and facts.
"With this in mind, we are preparing amendments to the Law and reorganization of the ESBU to clearly define its functions in line with the best practices in this area, strengthen its analytical component and make it subordinate to the Ministry of Finance. To begin with, we will revise the legal framework for the ESBU and develop transparent processes for selecting staff and management on a competitive basis. We will also tighten the requirements for the selection committee and introduce a clear competitive selection process, as well as streamline the activities of the Public Control Council at the ESBU. We will develop a mechanism for staff certification and introduce a contractual system for employees," the Letter of Intent states.
The dismissal of the first head of the ESBU, Vadym Melnyk, on 11 April 2023 and the appointment of first one and then another acting director of the Bureau did not help much either. This did not affect the agency's personnel policy: vacant positions were filled sluggishly and mostly by people from the "system" - former tax police and other security officials. The ESBU management did not ensure timely formation of the staff, which is staffed by only 20.6% of the staff (as of September 1, 2023, the staff consisted of 827 employees out of the required 4000).
"Contrary to the position of the President of Ukraine that all "economic" offenses should be investigated by a single pre-trial investigation body, 80% of criminal proceedings under the ESBU's jurisdiction continue to be investigated by other bodies, which discredits the main idea of the Bureau's creation," the MPs conclude.
The European Business Association is in favor of the adoption of the ESBU's draft law: "The EBA supports the main idea of the draft law that ESBU employees should be selected on a competitive basis in several stages without giving any preference to candidates who are currently working in law enforcement. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to ensure proper representation of the public in the ESBU competition commissions and to provide for effective mechanisms of public control over the selection and dismissal of ESBU employees, including integrity checks."
Similar assessments are contained in the appeals of other influential business associations - the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Business Council, the Association of Taxpayers of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council. The same support is promised by the leading economic think tanks - CASE Ukraine, Institute for Tax Reforms, Center for Economic Strategy, Institute for Social and Economic Transformation, Center for Economic Strategy, Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting, Institute for Analysis and Advocacy, DiXi Group and others.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the holding of a "broad meeting" with representatives of law enforcement and anti-corruption agencies, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers and the Prosecutor General. "Similarly, there are other challenges in our state - we have to implement all other elements of justice for our citizens, because this is our promise to Ukraine both in the fight against the external enemy and internal daily threats and challenges. This concerns both the protection of our national security and the final cleansing of oligarchic and corrupt influence in Ukraine. And preventing any establishment of new oligarchic or similar clans. Therefore, we need a concept of fundamental measures, measures of state policy, which will allow to ensure a real sense of justice, not even a sense, but the realization of justice in Ukraine," he said in a video released in Telegram.
On 27 August 2023, President Zelenskyy proposed to equate corruption in Ukraine with high treason and transfer all cases of top corrupt officials from the and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine [NABU] and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office [SAPO] to the the Security Service of Ukraine [SBU]. "I have set a task. Legislators will be presented with a proposal to equate corruption with state treason during times of war. I understand that this cannot be a permanent measure, but during wartime, I believe it will be beneficial... I don't know if lawmakers will support it, but I will certainly put it forward. Because we are developing a democratic society, and it's crucial not to tighten the screws each time in response to specific, sensational cases but to implement systemic changes".
On 30 August 2023, the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Budget Committees met to discuss the European Commission’s proposals to support Ukraine. Michael Gahler, rapporteur on Ukraine in the European Parliament, said: "I think it is inappropriate to shift responsibility for fighting corruption from existing institutions, such as NABU and SAPO, to the SBU during the war by renaming corruption as high treason. On the other hand, it is good that the complexity of the problem of corruption in time of war is recognized on a par with high treason, but it is up to the existing authorized institutions to overcome this challenge. We must avoid the impression that the purpose of such an initiative is to enable the authorities to control corruption cases and determine their fate, especially when it comes to cases involving high-ranking officials".
Ukrainian state security officials named powerful businessman Ihor Kolomoisky as a suspect in a fraud and money laundering case, the SBU security service said 02 September 2023. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who rose to prominence as a comedian and played the role of president on a show aired on a Kolomoisky-owned TV channel, has denied having personal ties to Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine's richest men.
Casey Michel wrote 13 March 2022 in The Specatator that Volodymyr Zelensky "would not be where he is today without Kolomoisky. As an actor and entertainer, Zelensky had worked for Kolomoisky’s media network — which then gave him form support when he stood as a candidate. Zelensky was seen as the Kolomoisky candidate: he appointed one of Kolomoisky’s lawyers as an adviser, and held meetings with the controversial oligarch even as he campaigned as the ‘anti-oligarch’. In early 2021, Zelensky reportedly breached his own Covid lockdown rules to have a birthday party in Kolomoisky’s Kyiv apartment."
In the 1959 film Ben-Hur, Messala, a Roman officer, condemns his childhood friend Judah Ben-Hur to the galleys, and Ben-Hur's mother and sister were also imprisoned. Messala explains that "By condemning without hesitation an old friend, I shall be feared." He says, "I asked for your help Judah, and now you've given it to me". Or as Machiavelli asked “ whether it be better to be loved than feared or feared than loved? One should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one person, it is much safer to be feared than loved.”
Kolomoisky was a former owner of leading Ukrainian bank PrivatBank, which was nationalized in late 2016 as part of a major clean-up of the country's banking system. He also owned an array of assets in the energy, banking, and other sectors, including one of Ukraine's most influential television channels. "It was established that during 2013-2020, Ihor Kolomoisky legalized more than half a billion hryvnias (roughly $13.5 million or €12.5 million at the current exchange rate) by withdrawing them abroad and using the infrastructure of the controlled banks," the SBU said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
In August 2020, the United States filed two actions in the Southern District of Florida alleging that commercial real estate in Dallas and Louisville, Kentucky, was acquired using funds illegally obtained from PrivatBank in Ukraine as part of a multibillion-dollar fraudulent loan scheme. It filed a third suit in the same district in December 2020 alleging a property in Cleveland, Ohio, was similarly involved.
The four complaints allege that Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Boholiubov, who owned PrivatBank, one of the largest banks in Ukraine, embezzled and defrauded the bank of billions of dollars. The two allegedly obtained fraudulent loans and lines of credit from approximately 2008 through 2016, when the scheme was uncovered and the bank was nationalized by the National Bank of Ukraine.
The United States sanctioned Kolomoisky on 05 March 2021. "In his official capacity as a Governor of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk Oblast from 2014 to 2015, Kolomoyskyy was involved in corrupt acts that undermined rule of law and the Ukrainian public’s faith in their government’s democratic institutions and public processes, including using his political influence and official power for his personal benefit." US authorities also alleged Kolomoiskiy and a business partner laundered stolen funds through the United States. Kolomoisky steered one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in world history. Kolomoiskiy has denied any wrongdoing.
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