Zelensky's ally was searched in Ukraine

They were carried out by the anti-corruption bureau, which the President of Ukraine tried to deprive of independence

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) conducted searches of the Minister of Justice German Galushchenko and Timur Mindich, an associate of President Vladimir Zelensky, co-owner of the Kvartal 95 studio and the alleged owner of the defense company Fire Point (supplier of combat drones and missiles for the Armed Forces of Ukraine). Mindic left the country a few hours before the searches.

On the same day, NABU published materials from an investigation into corruption in the Energoatom company, the operator of all four operating nuclear power plants in Ukraine. According to the department, Mindich was the creator and one of the main beneficiaries of a large-scale theft scheme. The investigation is based on many hours of recordings of wiretapped conversations of participants in the scheme.

NABU claims that a lot of people took part in the scheme - from employees of the Ministry of Energy to employees of individual services of Energoatom. Its key participants were Advisor to the Minister of Energy Igor Mironyuk and Executive Director for Physical Protection and Security of Energoatom Dmitry Basov. German Galushchenko, who until June 2025 served as Minister of Energy, was also associated with her. NABU believes that he retains influence over the industry through his successor Svetlana Grinchuk and the managers he appointed before leaving.

Another person involved is Sergei Pushkar, a member of the National Commission for the Regulation of Energy and Utilities (NCRECU). Until recently, he was the executive director for legal issues at Energoatom, and was appointed to the position at NEURC with gross violations: despite the worst result in the competition, he was “stretched out” on Mironyuk’s instructions.

Mironyuk used to be an assistant to Andrei Derkach, the former president of Energoatom and a pro-Russian politician. After the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Derkach left for Russia, now he is a senator from the Astrakhan region. Deprived of Ukrainian citizenship by decree of President Vladimir Zelensky. The Ukrainian Security Service believes that Derkach, while still living in Ukraine, was part of the GRU (Russian military intelligence) intelligence network.

In fact, according to NABU, it was Mironyuk and Basov who controlled Energoatom’s purchases.

Any company that wanted to supply equipment or services to Energoatom had to pay a 10% to 15% kickback. Refusal meant immediate blocking of payments and exclusion from the list of suppliers. Inside the network, this principle was called the “barrier”: if you want to pass, share.

In 2024, one of the companies supplied equipment worth 12 million hryvnia, and a year later, after falling under the organization’s “roof,” it received contracts worth 435 million.

The financial part of the scheme worked through a whole network of companies and offshore companies, which was called a “laundry” in the investigation materials. Her office was located in the center of Kyiv. Here “black accounting” was carried out, cash was stored and all transactions were recorded.

The operational part, according to the investigation, was headed by a man nicknamed “Sugarman” - presumably one of the Tsukerman brothers, Mikhail or Alexander, also associated with Mindich and Kvartal 95. They, like Mindich, left Ukraine shortly before the searches.

The chief accountant of the “laundry” was, according to NABU, a certain “Reshik”. The money was issued in cash, transferred to cryptocurrency, mixed with other flows, and then returned to circulation already “clean.” The geography of transactions covered Kyiv, Moscow, Atlanta, Africa and North America.

According to NABU, in a year alone, about 100 million dollars passed through this structure, of which more than five million were legalized in the interests of Mironyuk personally. In February 2025, Mironyuk transferred 350 thousand dollars to the laundry, in March - 840 thousand dollars and 100 thousand euros, and in April the volume of transactions increased to three million dollars.

Investigators paid special attention to how this corruption scheme prevented the creation of a system for protecting Ukrainian nuclear power plants, transformer substations and other elements of the energy infrastructure. Discussing a contract for the construction of protective structures for transformer plants, the participants in the scheme complained that from three billion hryvnia they received too little a “kickback” - “90” (either thousands of dollars, or millions of hryvnia).

According to NABU, tens of millions of dollars passed through controlled companies in just one year of the scheme’s operation. In total, about 100 million were identified, legalized through foreign accounts and offshore companies.

After the publication of the NABU materials, President Vladimir Zelensky limited himself to a brief statement: he supports the work of NABU and SAPO and expects that the investigation will be completed. However, the names of the suspects were not announced, and there was no talk of any dismissal or removal of officials.

None of the defendants in the case has yet officially become a suspect, and no one has been placed under arrest.

The Ukrainian media have repeatedly suggested that Zelensky’s attempt to subjugate the Ukrainian anti-corruption authorities in the summer of 2025 was connected with the investigation against Mindich. This decision caused mass protests - and Zelensky soon canceled it.

"Jellyfish"