The Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) searched the apartments and offices of participants in another major Ukrainian corruption scandal on November 10, 2025, in which Zelensky’s friend, Timur Mindich, once again played a key role. Executives of the Ukrainian state company Energoatom, which has more than 32,000 employees, demanded bribes ranging from 10 to 15% of the total value of contracts when awarding contracts for building defenses for energy facilities against Russian aerial attacks. Zelensky’s friend, Timur Mindich, fled Ukraine in a taxi just four hours before the anti-corruption authorities conducted their searches of the apartments and offices of the culprits.

Image: Timur Mindich, a film producer and co-owner of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Kvartal 95 production company, in an undated photo. (Social Media / Source)

Timur Mindičh had already once previously been warned that Ukrainian anti-corruption authorities were about to accuse him, and therefore he fled to Austria. It was because he was suspected of having taken personal control over the purchase of energy equipment in the joint-stock company Kharkovoblenergo in 2021 and was believed to have influenced corrupt practices during the procurement of this equipment by other state enterprises in the energy sector. 

He was apparently warned every time due to his friendship with Zelensky and the hidden struggle between Ukrainian state intelligence agencies and anti-corruption authorities. According to an article in the newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, the Ukrainian intelligence service at the Ministry of Defense (GRU) sent a unit of special forces to Vienna, tasked with doing everything to ensure Mindich’s safe return to Ukraine. This was confirmed by the fact that Timur Mindich met with the head of the military intelligence service GRU, Kirill Budanov, after his return to Ukraine in October. The connection between Ukrainian intelligence agencies and corruption in the Ukrainian government was previously demonstrated by the fact that GRU officials accompanied another friend of Zelensky, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, who was accused of corruption in Ukraine in June, during his return to Ukraine from Vienna. When he arrived to Ukrainian territory, his escort was taken over by officials from the Ukrainian State Security Service (SBU). Both intelligence services were supposed to prevent Chernyshov from being detained by NABU or SAP officials, who had already charged him with involvement in a corrupt profit amounting to 1.2 billion hryvnias.

Černyšov was returning to Ukraine based on a promise from Volodymyr Zelensky that, although he is accused, he will not be punished, which was communicated to him abroad by Timur Mindich.

As Mindich’s main associate in the Energoatom case, businessman Mikhail Zuckerman has been identified. He was also linked to a corruption case involving Ukraine’s largest chemical company, the Odesa Port Plant, which was part of the state defense conglomerate Ukroboronprom, where approximately two billion hryvnias were embezzled. Businessman Mikhail Zuckerman and the companies associated with him appeared at the state enterprise Odesa Port Plant before the Russian invasion. At the same time, informal control over this state enterprise, according to Ukainian Pravda, might have passed from one co-owner of the “Kvartal 95” studio, Sergei Shefir, to another – Timur Mindich. They were therefore old collaborators. Before Mindich’s return to Ukraine, both were in Israel where they tried to obtain citizenship. Zuckerman stayed there. The NABU investigation indicated that Mindich was managing money laundering obtained through corruption in an office set up in a garage, which was called the ‘laundry,’ and that about 100 million dollars passed through.

According to wiretaps from the NABU, the money amassed through corruption was also to be used to pay a bail of 120 million hryvnias for former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, who was being investigated for embezzlement of approximately 1.2 billion hryvnias. Corruption in the Ukrainian government was thus being carried out by an organized group. Detectives from the NABU and prosecutors from the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office also found that Mindich and his accomplices handed over 1.2 million dollars and 100,000 euros to Oleksiy Chernyshov. Chernyshov was among the regular visitors to the “laundry”. He used this additional money to purchase land and houses in the town of Kozin, not far from Kyiv. In one of the conversations intercepted by NABU, Mykhailo Zuckerman directly states that they will give 500,000 to ‘Che Guevara’ (the nickname for Chernyshov) for construction.

Ukrainska Pravda wrote that on the day when participants in the last corruption scandal were being arrested, Oleksiy Chernyshov visited the building of the Intelligence Service of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. Ukrainska Pravda asked whether he had come there to request a safe exit from Ukraine. Two days later, late in the evening on Friday, November 14, 2025, NABU and SAP (the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office) delivered charges to Oleksiy Chernyshov, accusing him of accepting illegal profits worth 1.2 million dollars and 500,000 euros. The agencies requested the High Anti-Corruption Court to place Chernyshov in investigative custody. On Tuesday, the court placed him in investigative custody and set bail at 51.6 million hryvnia. On Wednesday, two individuals paid the bail for him. One of them was lawyer Andrej Procik, who in the past was a partner at the law firm of future Minister of Agriculture Solskiy, who was removed from his position in 2024 due to allegations of corrupt activities and was a member of the supervisory board of the large company Ukrnafta from 2019 to 2022. According to information from Ukrainska Pravda from business circles, he is currently likely managing Chernyshov’s interests in the pharmacy market. The second individual was Irina Fedorovich.

Image: Andriy Yermak (Public Domain)

According to sources from Ukrainska Pravda, there was evidence that participants in the corruption scheme at Energoatom were aware as early as Friday that the NABU would take some measures on Monday, and they spread the message among themselves that “it is necessary to clear things up by Monday.” They may have also received this information from the court, where preparations for the Monday action were already underway. On Friday, the presidential office was informed that NABU and SAP were preparing measures. Its director, Andriy Yermak, learned that measures were being prepared, including against him. Yuriy Kasiyanov who named President Zelensky in connection with corruption in the production of drones for the Ukrainian army by the company Fire Point, wrote on Facebook about the chief of the Ukrainian Border Guard Service where Kasjanov served: ‘Deyneka destroyed our unit on the orders of Yermak. A successful military collective that was carrying out fantastic combat operations was sacrificed to top-level corruption. Details later.’ Andrij Yyermak was the head of the Zelensk’s presidential office.

The British weekly The Economist wrote on September 25, 2025, that the almost most powerful man in Ukraine is Andriy Yermak, who, together with Zelensky, began to dismantle democracy.

The director of NABU, Semen Krivonos, responded on November 14 in the UP.chat program (an interview with Ukrainska Pravda) to journalists’ questions from Ukrainska Pravda regarding whether Andriy Yermak was involved in the corruption scandal at Energoatom: “I cannot confirm or deny that. Because, well… we do not confirm or deny such things.”

When asked if Timur Mindich was the head of the group of corrupt individuals, he replied that he was a co-organizer and that he refuses to elaborate further, adding that detectives are currently focused on tracking the flow of money. They could, of course, lead to Yermak and Zelensky.

Andriy Yermak reacted by meeting with the acting chargé d’affaires of the USA in Ukraine, Julia Davis, on November 14. He wrote on social media that regarding this corruption scandal, they agreed that the investigation must be thorough “and must not be used to destabilize the situation in Ukraine to the benefit of Russia’s plans.” Because Davis did not refute this, it meant that he gained the support of the USA for him and Zelensky to remain in office and continue the war against Russia. Yermak also wanted to draw the attention of the Ukrainian public to this with his message on social media.

A similar stance to Julia Davis from the USA was taken by the ambassadors of the G7 countries in Ukraine. They published a joint statement in which they stated:

“We welcome President Zelensky’s willingness to cooperate and support the independent investigation by NABU/SAP. We rely on his continued leadership in anti-corruption reforms, which are crucial for Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration.”

Alongside the USA, they also did not want to include Zelensky in the new corruption scandal, so he could continue to lead the war against Russia for the expansion of NATO-controlled territory. However, they omitted Yermak in their statement.

Ukrainska Pravda quoted SAP director Alexander Klimenko on November 18, stating that ‘some ‘Ali Baba’ is organizing meetings and ordering surveillance of NABU and SAP.’ Ukrainian parliament member from the Servant of the People party, Fedor Venislavsky, said in statements to Radio Liberty that parliament member Yaroslav Zheleznyak from the Holos party mentioned in the parliament that under the nickname Ali Baba, Andriy Yermak was acting in the last Ukrainian corruption scandal.

After receiving this information, the majority of leading Ukrainian politicians, including members of his party Servant of the People, advised Volodymyr Zelensky to dismiss Andriy Yermak from his position. Some members of the faction even threatened to leave the faction if this did not happen. Poroshenko’s opposition party, European Solidarity, blocked discussions in the Ukrainian parliament and demanded the dismissal of the “Ali Baba” government, also proposing the creation of a new governmental coalition in parliament.

The next day, Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to Turkey for talks with President Erdogan, accompanied by Andriy Yermak. Another participant in the negotiations was also supposed to be the former defense minister Rustem Umerov. Andriy Yermak provided this information on the presidential office’s website. 

Ruslan Magamedrasulov, who was detained by the SBU while NABU and SAP continued their investigation into corruption in government circles, and Zelensky attempted to stop them by stripping them of their independence from the government, responded on November 19 to an inquiry from the Suspilny media agency from detention with a letter in which he wrote about Timur Mindich:

“But I emphasize again that he is merely a top manager. Given the scope, influence, and depth of penetration of corruption schemes into the relevant power structures, one can conclude that there are other beneficiaries whose political will is necessary for these processes to be realized.”

Magamedrasulov had placed listening devices for NABU and stated that NABU had long been collecting information on the operations of so-called hidden offices of state companies in various sectors under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Defense, and the Ministry of Economy.

Zelenskyy has evidently tried to save Yermak by bringing him along to the top political negotiations. However, there is a big question of whether he can defend both himself and Yermak upon returning to Ukraine against the growing pressure for Yermak’s and subsequently his own resignation from office. By showing solidarity with Yermak, he has complicated his chances of survival, regardless of the fact that the West hoped he would continue the war against Russia. Ukraine has enough democratic sensibility to not allow Zelenskyy to impose a dictatorial regime on it.

*

Click the share button below to email/forward this article. Follow us on Instagram and X and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost Global Research articles with proper attribution.

Mojmir Babacek was born in 1947 in Prague, Czech Republic. Graduated in 1972 at Charles University in Prague in philosophy and political economy. In 1978 signed the document defending human rights in  communist Czechoslovakia „Charter 77“. Since 1981 until 1988 lived in emigration in the USA. Since 1996 he has published articles on different subjects mostly in the Czech and international alternative media.

In 2010, he published a book on the 9/11 attacks in the Czech language. Since the 1990‘s he has been striving to help to achieve the international ban of remote control of the activity of the human nervous system and human minds with the use of neurotechnology.

He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). 

Featured image source

Global Research is a reader-funded media. We do not accept any funding from corporations or governments. Help us stay afloat. Click the image below to make a one-time or recurring donation.