Slovakia’s Fico meets Ukraine’s Zelenskiy and delivers a message from Putin, opening indirect talks between the two presidents

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Uzhgorod to talk about energy and the peace process. / bne IntelliNews

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By Ben Aris in Belrin September 5, 2025

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Uzhgorod, close to the Slovak-Ukrainian border, on September 5 and delivered a message from Russian President Vladimir Putin in what could be an  indirect approach  to start talks between the two presidents. 

Zelenskiy said they discussed the path to a peaceful settlement of the war in Ukraine and post-war security guarantees, as well as Europe’s energy independence. "Russian oil, just as Russian gas, has no future," Zelenskiy said, referring to Ukraine’s recent bombing of Russian pipelines delivering oil and gas to Central Europe.

Zelenskiy described the conversation with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico as “substantive.”

“Thank you for the meeting. It is important that we have this dialogue, and we will continue it,” Zelenskiy said.

The meeting, which took place in the western Ukrainian city, are the first confirmed attempts by Putin to communicate directly with Zelenskiy at a time when US President Donald Trump has been trying to bring Putin and Zelenskiy together for direct talks to halt the conflict in Ukraine.

“Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy today in Uzhgorod, near the Slovak-Ukrainian border,” a joint statement released after the talks said giving no more details.

Fico has just returned from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin in China where he had a one-on-one meeting as the only member of the EU to travel to attend the event.

Fico is along with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban one of the few EU leaders sympathetic to Russia and has constantly called for an end to the hostilities through dialogue. Trump’s efforts to organise a face-to-face meeting between Zelenskiy and Putin seem to have stalled. Putin on September 4 said he is still open to a meeting and invited Zelenskiy to come to Moscow, but Bankova (Ukraine’s equivalent of the Kremlin) rejected that offer out of hand.

In China, Fico told Putin that he wants normalised relations with Russia. Slovakia remains heavily dependent on Russian energy imports.

“Let’s go back to what used to be typical for countries when it comes to economic cooperation,” Fico told Putin, “for the safe and regular gas supplies that we receive through TurkStream,” alluding to the recent halts in oil imports via the Russian Druzhba oil pipeline for which Fico’s left-right government blamed Ukraine.

The approach by Putin via Fico comes as a coalition of the willing Paris summit on September 4 ended in failure after the top EU leaders called Trump at the end of the discussion to seek the White House’s support for their plan to send a peacekeeping mission to Ukraine if hostilities cease. Trump turned the tables on the COW leaders and berated them for continuing to import Russian oil and “funding the war.”

No details of the message delivered by Fico have leaked, but Putin has repeatedly said he wants a deal that deals with the “root causes” of the conflict and reflects the “realities on the ground. Analysts take that to mean Russia is seeking a wider reset of security arrangements in Europe that include not only security guarantees for Ukraine but for Russia as well. It also probably means that Putin wants western recognition of Russian sovereignty over the five occupied Ukrainian regions, a no-Nato guarantee from Ukraine and significant sanctions relief.

Energy row

Part of the discussions covered Slovakia's energy dependence on Russia that is causing friction with the EU that wants to wean itself off Russian oil and gas supplies completely

“America wants to seriously cut Russia’s income from energy exports — and that is the right path,” Zelenskiy said in a video address to an economic forum in Italy just before meeting Fico. “We will also discuss this issue with Fico.”

Following Fico’s meeting with Putin earlier in the week, he said his government is "extremely interested" in developing relations with Moscow and continuing to buy Russian oil and gas.

The two leaders also discussed the current efforts by the coalition of the willing to thrash out security guarantees for Ukraine and Zelenskiy claimed Slovakia "will not stand aside" while other European countries pledged post-war support. It is unclear what role Fico's government might play in those arrangements.

Zelenskiy also said that Slovakia supports Ukraine in its stalled EU accession bid in contrast to Hungary, which is actively blocking the process. Zelenskiy also said they talked about directions for bilateral cooperation in the economy, energy, and infrastructure. According to him, Slovakia will “not stay on the sidelines” and will “actively participate in the joint progress.”

“Slovakia supports Ukraine in its move toward the European Union. This is very significant. We also see that Ukraine and Moldova must continue moving together toward EU membership. It is also important that bilateral cooperation in economic, energy, and infrastructure matters here in our region strengthens our peoples, our countries,” Zelenskiy said in a statement.

 

 

Zelenskiy's U.S. Visit Sparks Political Firestorm

By RFE/RL staff - Sep 30, 2024

• Zelenskiy's visit to a munitions factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania, sparked controversy among Republicans, who viewed it as a partisan campaign event.
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• Trump and other Republicans have criticized US aid to Ukraine and suggested that Kyiv should negotiate with Russia.
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• The future of US support for Ukraine remains uncertain, with the outcome of the presidential election potentially having a significant impact on the war's trajectory.
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In 2020, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was dragged into the U.S. presidential election campaign. This time, just weeks before a vote that could have a massive influence on Kyiv's defense against the Russian invasion, he walked right into it.

On September 22, Zelenskiy toured a munitions factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania, that makes ammunition for his armed forces, thanking workers and signing one of the 155 mm shells that are crucial for Kyiv's war effort. He was joined by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and two members of the House of Representatives, all Democrats.

Had Zelenskiy visited the plant during any of his four previous trips to the United States since Russia launched the full-scale invasion in February 2022, it might have been long forgotten by now.

Instead, it has turned into a flashpoint for Republicans, creating controversy that marred his the nearly weeklong visit to the United States, Ukraine's biggest backer, at a time when Russia is making gains on the battlefield, decimating Ukraine's energy infrastructure as winter approaches, and counting on Western support for Kyiv to wither.

Battleground

Scranton is President Joe Biden's hometown. Pennsylvania is a crucial battleground state whose voters could end up deciding the November 5 election between Republican former President Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

For Zelenskiy, the factory tour was meant "to demonstrate and show…that the assistance to Ukraine is beneficial to the United States itself, because this assistance makes it possible to create new jobs," Alyona Getmanchuk, director of the Ukrainian think tank New Europe Center and a nonresident senior fellow at the U.S.-based Atlantic Council Eurasia Center, told RFE/RL in Kyiv.

Trump, she said, apparently "perceived this as an attempt to…influence the electoral balance, which is very fragile in the state of Pennsylvania. That is, he saw it exclusively in the context of the election."

As Zelenskiy's U.S. trip continued with speeches at the United Nations and meetings with Biden and Harris at the White House, Republicans lashed out over the factory tour. The speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, called it "a partisan campaign event" and demanded Zelenskiy "immediately fire" his ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova.

Charles Kupchan, an analyst at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, said the munitions plant visit "backfired."

"It's more an indication of the polarized debate between Democrats and Republicans than it is about any missteps taken by Zelenskiy," he told RFE/RL.

'Much More Difficult'

Mykola Byelyeskov, an analyst at the Ukrainian government-backed National Institute for Strategic Studies in Kyiv, suggested the U.S. election campaign makes navigating ties with Kyiv's most crucial backer particularly tricky.

"Zelenskiy is doing his best" on the U.S. trip, Byelyeskov told RFE/RL. "We see some results. I'm sure that we'll see more results. And we need to deal with every single faction in U.S. politics. And we are trying to do this. And it's much more difficult during the election season."

For Biden, it's also "very difficult to take radical steps that in his mind might bring the issue of escalation closer. Because all the surveys in the U.S., domestic ones, they say that the American population is indeed concerned with hypothetical nuclear escalation," he said. "That's why it makes it more difficult for Ukraine to argue for various things that we need."

During the visit, Zelenskiy did not secure a public promise that the United States would permit Kyiv to strike deeper into Russia with U.S. long-range missiles.

A group of Republicans in the House held up $61 billion in mostly military aid for Ukraine for six months, leading to a deficit of ammunition on the battlefield, in part on the grounds that the money could be better spent at home. The United States spends the majority of the aid money at home on restocking arms and equipment sent to Ukraine, and the trip to Scranton highlighted that fact.

Johnson had been instrumental in eventually getting the package through; his public ire over the plant visit signaled goodwill over that development is gone.

Kurt Volker, a Pennsylvania native who served as a special envoy to Ukraine under Trump in 2017-2019, called the timing of the factory tour "a huge mistake."

"It is a very sensitive time, a sensitive issue, a sensitive state -- like, the key swing state. It is just playing with fire, and Ukraine should do everything possible to avoid being a political subject in our election," said Volker, who is now an analyst at the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington.

Way Back When

Lucian Kim, senior Ukraine analyst for the Crisis Group, called the visit a "misstep" on Zelenskiy's part that opened him up for criticism from opponents of aid for Ukraine within the Republican Party faction known as MAGA Republicans for their unyielding support for Trump and his policies.

"Bilateral U.S. support has been one of the foundations of Ukrainian foreign policy," Kim said. "That level of bipartisan support now seems to be in question. The MAGA wing, which is unsympathetic to Ukraine, is increasingly defining the Republican party."

The Pennsylvania plant visit was at last one factor raising doubts about an expected meeting between Zelenskiy and Trump -- whose relationship has been colored for years by a phone call in 2019, just months after the Ukrainian leader's election, that led to Trump's impeachment -- would take place.

Trump was impeached by the then-Democratic-controlled House of Representatives in December 2019 over the phone call in which he was accused of pressuring Zelenskiy to dig up dirt on the Biden family's activities in Ukraine. He was acquitted by the Senate, then controlled by the Republicans, in February 2020.

Trump took aim at Zelenskiy several times. At a campaign stop on September 25, he repeated his description of the Ukrainian president as "the greatest salesman in the world" -- a reference to the tens of billions of dollars in aid lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have approved since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.

'Proposals For Surrender'

He also repeated his argument that Kyiv should have reached an agreement with Russia to stave off or end the invasion. "Any deal -- the worst deal -- would've been better than what we have now," he asserted. "If they made a bad deal, it would've been much better. They would've given up a little bit and everybody would be living."

Trump has said he would bring an end to Russia's war against Ukraine quickly if he is elected, several times saying it would happen even before the inauguration in January -- a claim he made again when he and Zelenskiy met in New York on September 27. He has not said how he would accomplish this, but his comments have raised concerns his efforts would involve exhorting Ukraine to hand territory to Russia.

On the main purposes of Zelenskiy's U.S. trip was to present Biden and others with a "victory plan" for the war against the Russian invasion, though details have not been released. Trump, in his debate against Harris on September 10, declined to answer directly when asked whether he wants Ukraine to win, saying, "I want the war to stop."

On September 26, Harris said suggestions that Kyiv should cede territory for the sake of peace are "dangerous and unacceptable." Such calls are "proposals for surrender," she said.

A Meeting In New York

In an interview with The New Yorker ahead of his U.S. visit, Zelenskiy said, "Trump doesn't really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how." He also said JD Vance, Trump's running mate, is "too radical" and has suggested he wants Ukraine "to give up our territories."

The atmosphere seemed warmer when Zelenskiy and Trump held talks at the Trump Tower in New York, with Trump praising Zelenskiy for his conduct during the impeachment process -- "he was a piece of steel" -- but there was no sign of a change in Trump's attitude toward the Russian invasion.

Trump again offered no details on how he would seek an end to the war, saying he believes that "we're going to get it resolved very quickly" if he wins the presidency. "If we have a win, I think long before January 20…we can work out something that's good for both sides this time," Trump said before the two sat down for the meeting.

"It's a shame but this is a war that should have never happened, and we'll get it solved," Trump said after the meeting. "It is a complicated puzzle.... Too many people dead."

In a Telegram post after what he called a “very meaningful meeting,” Zelenskiy said that he had presented his “victory plan” to Trump and that they “discussed used many details.”

"We have a common view that the war in Ukraine must be stopped. Putin cannot win. The Ukrainians must win," he said.

Whether Zelenskiy's visit will affect the outcome of the U.S. election is an open question.

"Foreign policy issues in general don't determine [U.S.] electoral outcomes. People vote on the economy, on immigration, on crime, what's on their radar screen on a day-to-day basis," Kupchan said.

And exactly how a win for Trump or for Harris might change the course of the war is also unclear.

Kupchan said that despite Trump's rhetoric, he will struggle to cut a deal with Putin if elected and likely end up approving aid for Ukraine.

"Trump would not want to be the American president who lost Ukraine. And so even if he gets elected and tries to negotiate an end game, he too is going to end up having to send support to Ukraine," he said.

By RFE/RL

 

General Zaluzhnyi attacks Zelenskiy’s administration in apparent bid for the presidency

Ukraine’s former commander in chief and now ambassador to the UK General Valerii Zaluzhnyi lashed out at the Zelenskiy administration in what could be the start of a bid to take over as president as the president comes under increasing pressure due to an escalating corruption scandal. / bne IntelliNews

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By Ben Aris in Berlin December 1, 2025

Ukraine’s former commander in chief and now ambassador to the UK General Valerii Zaluzhnyi lashed out at the Zelenskiy administration in what appears to be the start of a bid to take over as president.

The well-liked Zaluzhnyi was sacked by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last year following the failure of the 2023 summer offensive which he described as bringing the war to a stalemate. However, it is widely believed that Zelenskiy removed Zaluzhnyi after he overtook the president in the polls.

Zaluzhnyi took the unusual step of publishing a critical opinion piece in the UK’s Telegraph titled “How to defeat Putin and build a better Ukraine”, as well as posting similar remarks on social media the same day.

The criticism comes at a sensitive time for Zelenskiy, who is embroiled in the largest corruption scandal of his career, after his former business partner Timur Mindich was accused by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) of masterminding a $100mn kick-back scheme at the state-owned utility company Energoatom. Mindich skipped the country only hours before NABU raided his office and home, where a solid gold toilet was discovered as well as packs of hundreds of thousands of euros and dollars.

The corruption scandal has been expanding and claimed the powerful éminence grise of Ukraine on November 28, Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office and Zelenskiy closest advisor.

Yermak resigned after NABU searched his home and office. He has since said he will enlist and go to the frontline. Critics have pointed out that if Yermak enlists the relevant authority in charge of investigating crimes committed by soldiers is the State Bureau of Investigation and technically the investigation by NABU will have to be transferred to the State Bureau of Investigation, which reports to the president. NABU is entirely independent of the government and president and has its own independent Anti-Corruption Court (ACC) to prosecute high officials.

The Zaluzhny attack accused the Zelenskiy’s administration of not being able to define the political goal of Ukraine’s war efforts.

“He goes on to define the goal in even more radical terms than Zelenskiy ever defined it - a full destruction of the “Russian empire”. Also, he conveniently ignores the fact that Ukraine’s political goals had to shift when he failed to deliver a victorious counter-offensive in 2023 as Ukraine’s commander-in-chief,” journalist and bne IntelliNews columnist Leonid Ragozin said in a comment.

“More than anything, the article sells Zaluzhny himself as a leader who - unlike Zelenskiy - understands war and grand political strategy. A clear presidential pitch, Ragozin added.

The wartime trinity

“War cannot be waged effectively without a clear political goal. After all, war is not an end in itself, it is waged for political goals. Russia has long ago defined its goal as the destruction of Ukraine as an independent state,” Zaluzhnyi said in a social media post. “Ukraine's political goal in the Russian-Ukrainian war should be formed on the basis of such challenges. And the basis of such a goal should be to deprive Russia of opportunities for aggression against Ukraine in the foreseeable future.”

In a detailed conversation with the Ukrainian publication Liga.net, Zaluzhnyi gave more details of his objections to Zelenskiy's war strategy.

The philosophical framing of the criticism suggests that Zelenskiy has not understood the nature of war and its political problems, whereas he, Zaluzhnyi, does understand this problem and by implication is better suited to lead the country.

“The political purpose of war is what answers all questions. It is this term that makes it possible to see not only what the enemy is doing, but also how to move forward ourselves. And if, according to the [military analyst] Clausewitz, war is a "trinity": the population, the armed forces and the state administration, then these aspects are three different codes of laws and among these parties, it is the population that is the most sensitive party in terms of supporting the war,” Zaluzhnyi said.

“Without public support, it is impossible to wage a war successfully. Then perhaps the main form of such public support is the attitude of society, first of all, to mobilisation, which quickly began to fail,” Zaluzhnyi added.

Immediately after the Russian invasion, the government imposed martial law and began an aggressive and highly unpopular mandatory conscription drive. Military police officers have been grabbing men from the street and throwing them into buses before they are sent to the frontline.

Zaluzhnyi goes on to argue that Russia has managed to marshal all three elements of Clausewitz’s trinity and is well prepared for a long war should the current peace negations with the US fail. Ukraine, however, continues to suffer from its trinity of problems: the lack of men, money and materiel. More stingingly, Zaluzhnyi accuses Zelenskiy of having no clear political goal in the war.

“War does not always end with the victory of one side and the defeat of the other. We Ukrainians strive for complete victory, but we cannot reject the option of a long-term end to the war. Peace, even in anticipation of the next war, provides a chance for political change, for deep reforms, for full recovery, economic growth and the return of citizens,” Zaluzhnyi said on social media in what appears to be a political agenda for a post-war recovery in Ukraine.

“It is even possible to speak about the beginning of the formation of a safe, protected state through innovation and technology; of strengthening the foundations of justice through the fight against corruption and the creation of an honest court system; and of economic development, including on the basis of international economic recovery programmes,” he added.

Ukrainian Corruption Investigation Reveals Derkach’s Role – Analysis



File photo of Andrei Derkach. Photo: Andriy Derkach / Telegram

December 2, 2025 
By Dr. Taras Kuzio


A high-level corruption scandal has been roiling Ukraine’s domestic politics and undermining trust in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The scandal follows the president’s attempts in July to remove the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor (SAPO), which have been investigating this corruption case since last year (Zmina, July 31).

Russia’s long-term involvement in Ukraine’s economy allowed it to collect kompromat (компромат, compromising material) on Ukrainian elites, sow internal strife to undermine national unity and morale in the army, and collect intelligence on Ukraine’s air defenses (Argument, November 13). Some of the funds stolen in the corruption scandal were meant to build defenses for Ukrainian utilities.

In November, evidence released by the NABU showed that $100 million from contracts for nuclear facility protection that was reported to have been stolen was laundered at a central Kyiv office owned by the family of Andrei Derkach, a former Ukrainian member of parliament and current Russian senator (NABU, November 10; Euromaidan Press, November 11). Ihor Myronyuk, an aide to Derkach for over a decade, handled the cash for the corruption scheme (Euromaidan Press, November 11). At least $2 million of the stolen funds were transferred to Derkach. NABU detectives found items in the office labeled “Federal Protective Service of the Russian Federation” (Euromaidan Press, November 11).

Derkach grew up in a Committee for State Security (KGB) family during the Soviet Union (Liga.net, November 12). His father, Leonid, worked in the Soviet Ukrainian KGB from 1972—when a major pogrom targeting Ukrainian dissent and culture took place—until the Soviet Union’s collapse in late 1991 to early 1992. Leonid Derkach then served as chairman of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) from 1998 to 2001. He was removed from the SBU over the scandal surrounding the murder of journalist Georgi Gongadze in the fall of 2000, and after a July 2000 recording showed his involvement in the sale of four Kolchuga radars to Iraq, which was under international sanctions at that time (Maidan.org.ua, February 19, 2001; Ukrainska Pravda, May 22, 2002).

Andrei Derkach served with the Soviet KGB and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) in Moscow from 1990 until 1993. He was then a parliamentary deputy for the pro-presidential For a United Ukraine, Socialist Party, Party of Regions, and one of its successors, Will of the People. He owned ERA TV and Radio and the Russian-language newspaper Kievskij Telegraf (Kyiv Telegraph), named after a newspaper published in Kyiv from 1859 to 1876.

The Yuliya Tymoshenko government appointed Derkach as president of Energoatom in 2006. Since then, he has maintained a network of corrupt allies with ties to Russia inside Ukraine’s nuclear power sector. This, as seen in the explosive corruption scandal, was undertaken on behalf of Russia (Liga.net, November 14). For years, Ukraine’s entire nuclear energy sector was under the complete control of an FSB agent network, created by Derkach back in 2006 (Argument, November 13). He attempted to consolidate Ukraine’s nuclear industry into the Kremlin’s structures (Liga.net, November 14).



Throughout the last two decades, U.S. intelligence has been ahead of the SBU in monitoring Derkach’s ties to Russian intelligence. In September 2020, the U.S. Treasury Department accused Derkach of being an active Russian agent for over a decade (U.S. Treasury Department, September 10, 2020).

Despite former Chief of Staff of the Ukrainian Presidential Administration Andriy Yermak promising tough measures against Ukrainians who had interfered in the 2020 U.S. election, the U.S. sanctions against Derkach led to no criminal charges (Kyiv Post, January 13, 2021; Radio Svoboda, August 20, 2021). Derkach fled to Russia only after Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. After fleeing, Derkach received Russian citizenship and has lived in Astrakhan. In fall 2024, he became a senator in Russia’s Federation Council and a member of its Defense Committee (Hromadske.ua, November 14, 2024).

Five months after he fled Ukraine, the SBU accused Derkach of receiving $3–4 million per month from the Russian Military Intelligence Agency (GRU) to create private security companies to assist Russian invasion forces (Kyiv Independent, September 16, 2024). Inform Napalm, a Ukrainian non-governmental organization (NGO) that has investigated Russian disinformation since 2014, concluded that Russia controlled Derkach’s operation in the United States (Inform Napalm, February 15, 2021). The Kremlin’s goals were to worsen U.S.–Ukrainian relations, end U.S. military support for Ukraine, foil former U.S. President Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, and portray Ukraine as a U.S. puppet state (Ukrainska Pravda, October 9, 2019).

An additional goal was to fabricate evidence of Zelenskyy’s supposed personal vendetta against former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and sow political instability in Ukraine. In May 2020, Derkach released tapes in four batches, including doctored conversations between Poroshenko and Biden. Zelenskyy quickly ordered criminal charges of treason against Poroshenko (Zerkalo Nedeli, May 24, 2020). The tapes allegedly showed high-level corruption in Ukraine under Poroshenko and the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv’s control over the Ukrainian president, government, and NABU (Ukrainska Pravda, October 9, 2019). The fake tapes and the NABU-leaks.com website claimed Biden had tried to halt Ukraine’s investigation into the gas company Burisma, where his son, Hunter, was a consultant.

In July 2022, Derkach’s head bodyguard was detained together with a large amount of cash, weapons, and pro-Russian literature (Ukrainska Pravda, July 27, 2022). In September 2022, the NABU and SAPO charged Derkach in absentia with high treason and illicit enrichment. In 2023, Derkach was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship (President of Ukraine, January 10, 2023). In November 2023, the Ukrainian State Bureau of Investigation (DBR) accused Derkach, Servant of the People Deputy Oleksandr Dubinsky, and former General Prosecutor Kostyantyn Kulyk of working for the GRU (Ukrainian State Bureau of Investigation, November 13, 2023). At the same time, a federal indictment from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York was issued under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), accusing Derkach of bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Derkach had purchased condos in Beverley Hills using shell companies to hide ownership and move millions of dollars (U.S. Justice Department, December 7, 2022).
Derkach’s Corruption Network

The SBU, which has a history of success in uncovering spies, seemingly allowed a Russian agent to operate in the Ukrainian parliament for twelve years. This was only possible because, as Holos (Voice) Party deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak stated, Derkach’s corrupt network had high-level protection (in criminal slang, a krysha [крышa; roof]), which meant he and his allies were virtually untouchable (Kyiv Post, November 11). For example, in November 2020, Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktov refused to open criminal cases against Derkach and Dubinsky for treason and money laundering (Ukrainska Pravda, November 3, 2020). Timur Mindich, head of the corruption conspiracy, ran an illegal diamond business in Russia and Ukraine from 2015 to 2024 (Zerkalo Nedeli, October 23). Ukraine only launched criminal action against Derkach and Mindich after they had been allowed to flee from Ukraine. Mindich’s whereabouts are unconfirmed, but he is most likely to be in Israel, where he holds a second citizenship.

Derkach’s May 2019–2020 network included pro-Russian politician Anatoly Shariy; businessman Taras Kozak; the wife of Viktor Medvedchuk and owner of a Crimean gas company, Oksana Marchenko; former President Viktor Yanukovych’s legal assistant Andrei Portnov; oligarch Ihor Kolomoysky; and pro-Russian Nash (Ours) TV journalist Nazar Diorditsa. Portnov was assassinated in Madrid in May (Kyiv Independent, May 22).

The intermediary in the conspiracy was Dmytro Firtash. The United States has sought to extradite Firtash from Austria since 2014 for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in a titanium mine in India, some of whose exports were to be sold to a Chicago company. After Firtash’s arrest in 2014, his bail was paid by the head of Russia’s judo association, which has close links to Russian President Vladimir Putin (Profil.at, October 23, 2019). Firtash had been Russia’s representative in Ukraine since the late 1990s, tasked with buying up strategic sectors of Ukraine’s economy on behalf of the Kremlin (seeEDM, July 26, 2010).

In 2017, Spain issued an additional extradition request over Firtash’s ties to Russian organized crime operating in the country. In 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice accused Firtash of being in the “upper echelon associates of Russian organized crime,” a reference to his ties to mobster Semyon Mogilevich, who is on a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) wanted list. Firtash had told then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor as far back as 2008 of his links to Mogilevich (Wikileaks, December 10, 2008).

Mindich was the youngest partner of oligarch Ihor Kolomoysky, whose TV channel 1+1 was hostile to Poroshenko because of the removal of Kolomoysky’s control over UkrNafta state oil company in 2015 and the nationalization of Privat Bank in 2016. Kolomoysky was Zelenskyy’s main backer in the 2019 elections against Poroshenko. Ukraine only detained Kolomoysky in September 2023 on money laundering charges at Privat Bank, eighteen months after the U.S. Department of Justice opened charges of embezzlement and fraud (U.S. Department of Justice, January 20, 2022).

Mindich is a co-owner of the Kvartal 95 television production company with Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy’s birthday was celebrated in Mindich’s Kyiv apartment in January 2021. In November of that year, Mindich attended Yermak’s birthday party in the presidential residence in western Ukraine (Euromaidan Press, November 12). Zelenskyy and his former Chief of Staff, Yermak, promised a full investigation. The main opposition party, led by Poroshenko, called for a government of national unity staffed by technocrats (European Solidarity, November 11).

The root of the corruption scandal lies in the president’s office providing a krysha. Investigation of high-level corruption is prevented because the president controls the SBU and the Prosecutor General’s Office. The NABU and SAPO, established under Poroshenko, are independent of the president, which is likely why Zelenskyy sought to curtail their operational independence. To avoid future scandals and conflicts of interest, the SBU and Prosecutor General’s Office should gain the same level of independence from the president as the NABU and SAPO. 

This article was published by The Jamestown Foundation

Dr. Taras Kuzio

Taras Kuzio is a professor of political science at the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy. He is co-author of The Four Roots of Russia’s War Against Ukraine (Cambridge University Press, 2026); co-editor of Russia and Modern Fascism: New Perspectives on the Kremlin’s War Against Ukraine (Columbia University Press, 2025); Crimea: Where Russia’s War Started and Where Ukraine Will Win (Jamestown Foundation, 2024), and Russian Nationalism and the Russian-Ukrainian War (Routledge, 2022). He can be found on X/Twitter @TarasKuzio

Ukrainian opposition party Holos calls for vote of no-confidence in the government over Energoatom corruption scandal

Ukrainian opposition party Holos calls for vote of no-confidence in the government over Energoatom corruption scandal / bne IntelliNews

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By bne IntelliNews November 16, 2025

The leader of Ukraine’s Holos (Voice) liberal opposition party, Kira Rudik, has called for a vote of no-confidence in the government, as the Energoatom corruption scandal continues to gather momentum.

Holos is a pro-European, anti-corruption party established in 2019. In an interview with France24, Rudik expressed frustration with the government’s performance after Timur Mindich, a close associate of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, was accused of stealing $100mn in a kickback scheme, by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).

“It is unacceptable to have this kind of corruption in the government in the time of war,” she said. “It is impossible to have elections, but we are calling for a vote of no confidence in the government.”

Holos, once part of governing coalitions, finds itself in increasing opposition to what it describes as inertia and corruption at the heart of the state.

The push for a no-confidence vote comes amid mounting pressure on the Zelenskyy administration, and follows on from the first anti-government demonstrations after the government tried to gut the anti-corruption reforms with the controversial Law 12414 on July 22.

Zelenskiy’s ruling Servant of the People party continues to enjoy wartime dominance but faces growing internal dissent. Analysts say the demand for parliamentary scrutiny reflects deeper concerns about transparency, reform and accountability.

As bne IntelliNews reported, the press coverage of Ukraine has been turning increasingly negative in recent months as Ukraine fatigue continues to build. Zelenskiy’s image was badly tarnished by Law 12414, but it has taken a much bigger hit with the Energoatom scandal. Several international outlets have criticised Zelenskiy's growing authoritarian tendencies.

Rudik’s stance suggests Ukraine’s democratic institutions are undergoing their own stress test. Zelenskiy was already in damage control mode over the weekend, announcing a major reform and audit of the energy sector, but it remains to be seen if his initiatives will be about to placate public disillusionment with his performance.

Should a vote of no-confidence proceed, the outcome remains uncertain. With martial law still in place, fresh elections are not permitted so a successful vote will remain largely symbolic. However, it will further weigh on Ukraine’s fading drive to rally supporters to provide Kyiv with tens of billions of euros of additional aid and increase sanctions on Russia.

Ukraine’s Energoatom corruption stole money to protect Ukraine’s power stations, caused blackouts

Ukraine’s Energoatom corruption stole money to protect Ukraine’s power stations leaving them defenceless and causing current blackouts. / bne IntelliNews

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By Ben Aris in Berlin November 16, 2025

A Russian missile barrage has plunged Ukraine into darkness as winter approaches but could have been avoided. Money earmarked to build effective defences against Russia’s sustained missile attacks was stolen, leaving them defenceless, Euromaidan Press reports.

Kyiv residents are facing 12-16 hour blackouts after some of the most massive drone and missile attacks of the war in the last week that are targeting the surviving non-nuclear power stations and distribution infrastructure.

However, Bankova (Ukraine’s equivalent of the Kremlin) launched a programme to protect its energy assets with defences that, where they were built, proved to be effective. However, after more than $100mn was siphoned off in the Energoatom kickback scheme exposed by National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) on November 10, orchestrated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s former business partner and good friend, Timur Mindich, money earmarked to build more defences was stolen and those defences at dozens of facilities were never built. That left power plants and infrastructure across the country vulnerable to the Russian attacks, which have now been put out of action just before the winter snows arrive.

The scandal will badly affect Western donor sentiment as following the start of the campaign to take out power plants started last year, Ukraine’s supporters have rushed hundreds of millions of dollars to Kyiv to rebuild or repair generation capacity. Now they are discovering that a large share of this money ended up in the pocket of powerful businessmen close to the president.

In summer 2023 after Russia launched its campaign to take out Ukraine’s power stations, authorities identified several hundred critical infrastructure objects requiring protection—not just those belonging to the state-owned utility company Ukrenergo substations, but power plants, gas infrastructure, and other essential facilities.

Under former Ukrenergo chief Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the head of the state-owned power company secured €1.5bn in Western aid over 18 months to build concrete shelters to defend Ukrenergo’s critical transformers – the largest recipient of Western aid after the state itself.

“Under Kudrytskyi's leadership, Ukrenergo partnered with the government's Agency for Restoration and Development of Infrastructure to construct approximately 60 anti-drone shelters for critical transformers by September 2024. These massive concrete structures—up to 25 metres tall—were designed specifically to withstand mass Iranian Shahed drone strikes,” Euromaidan Press reports.

They were tested by Russian attacks and nearly all survived repeated Russian missile and drone strikes. According to the Verkhovna Rada's temporary investigative commission, of 74 protected objects built by Ukrenergo and the Agency, only one autotransformer was destroyed by a direct hit from a heavy missile.

The programme was supposed to be extended to cover more critical distribution infrastructure belonging to the state-owned nuclear power utility Energoatom, but the money to pay for the work disappeared, Euromaidan Press reports.

When Kudrytskyi pushed back against the corruption, publicly criticising then Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko for failing to implement the infrastructure protection plan, he found himself under investigation for fraud by the authorities for a fence project that never happened, according to Euromaidan Press. He was sacked in September 2024.

“The political prosecution triggered a predictable response: Western donors withdrew, international funding collapsed to 5-10% of previous levels, and critical infrastructure went unprotected,” the publication reports.

The end of the defence programme proved to be especially catastrophic for Energoatom, where defence works had yet to begin leaving substations and thermal plants unprotected, which became easy pretty for Russian missiles.

Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Energy Industry Research Center, told Suspilne that this loss of international backing is directly responsible for the severity of current blackouts that should have been largely avoidable.

“Current blackouts stem from this dual institutional failure: corruption preventing infrastructure protection, political vendetta destroying donor confidence. Ukraine built the solution, proved it worked, then officials chose kickbacks over replication—and prosecuted the executive who delivered results,” Euromaidan reports.

At a time when Western aid to fund the reconstruction of the battered power sector is crucial to get Ukraine through its freezing winters, international aid for Ukrenergo dropped to just 5-10% of previous levels after Kudrytskyi's dismissal.

Investigators identified businessman Mindich as the principal coordinator of the Energoatom kickback scheme, but now Justice Minister and then Energy Minister Halushchenko was also a central figure, appearing in NABU’s recordings under the codename "Professor."

Zelenskiy demanded Halushchenko's resignation days after the scandal broke, but he remains at liberty and no formal charges have been brought against him yet. Zelenskiy is already receiving flak from critics for protecting members of his inner circle in the face of overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing.

Kudrytskyi's dismissal from Ukrenergo triggered a financial crisis at the company. The company Ukrenergo failed to include its Eurobonds in a restructuring deal coordinated with Ukraine's sovereign debt restructuring, pushing the company into technical default. Now the company is cut off from the international capital markets and will be unable to raise fresh capital should access to those markets reopen

Ukraine's Energoatom scandal escalates as Zelenskiy dithers on implementing a strong response

President Zelenskiy’s close friend Timur Mindich is accused of using his close association with the leadership to run a $100mn kickback scheme that has rocked the government and threatens to bring it down. / bne IntelliNews

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By Ben Aris in Berlin November 17, 2025

The Operation Midas scandal involving close associates of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and senior Ukrainian officials in a $100mn kickback scandal continues to expand as more officials get drawn into the net that threatens to bring the government down. 

On the one hand the investigation launched by Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies – National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) – is a positive sign as it underscores the strength of Ukraine’s civil society. On the other it also emphasises the depth of corruption in Ukraine where those responsible for leading the country in a time of war plunder tens of millions of dollars for their personal gain. 
Zelenskiy is facing his biggest test since taking office six years ago and how he chooses to respond to the crisis will be an acid test that could determine the future of the country and its prospects for staying in the war against Russia. 

Snapshot of the main players:

Friends / Business Associates

• Tymur Mindich — Businessman, co-owner of Kvartal 95 Studio, close associate of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy; alleged mastermind of the scheme. Sanctioned by Zelenskiy but has fled the country; call sign “Karlsson”.
• Oleksandr Tsukerman — Businessman, headed a money-laundering “back-office” used by the scheme; call sign “Sugarman”. Sanctioned by Zelenskiy but has fled the country.  

Ministers / Political Officials

• Herman Halushchenko — Former Minister of Energy (2021-2025) and later Justice Minister; appears in the audio tapes under call sign “Professor”. Has resigned from office.
• Svitlana Hrynchuk — Minister of Energy from July 17, 2025 to November 12, 2025. Has resigned from office.
• Oleksiy Chernyshov — Former Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine; charged with illicit enrichment in connection with the scheme; call sign “Che Guevara”. Placed into pre-trial detention in connection with the Operation Midas probe.

State Officials / Company Executives / Others

• Ihor Myroniuk — Former adviser to the Energy Minister (and former deputy head of the State Property Fund); call sign “Rocket”. Placed into pre-trial detention in connection with the Operation Midas probe.
• Dmytro Basov — Former Executive Director of Security at Energoatom; call sign “Tenor”. Placed into pre-trial detention in connection with the Operation Midas probe.

Other implicated:

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy  — the president’s name and voice appears in NABU tapes, but there is no conclusive evidence linking him to the scandal yet.
• Andriy Yermak— head of Ukraine’s presidential office, has been indirectly linked to the scandal, but no concrete evidence has been presented yet. He left the country as the scandal broke for a working trip to Turkey that was extended with a trip to Qatar where he remains for now.

Mindich arrest?

Zelenskiy revoked the Ukrainian citizenship of the two key figures in the scandal Mindich and Tsukerman, who had both fled to Israel right before NABU raid, and also imposed sanctions for three years. Mindich’s escape was so complete that he left his front door open for the investigators to spare the locks, local media report. Zelenskiy celebrated his birthday in the same apartment in 2021 in defiance of Covid restrictions. Mindich had a second apartment on the fourteenth floor of the same building where the now famous golden toilet is located. Israel does not extradite its citizens to any country irrespective of their crimes.

Ousted president Viktor Yanukovych also had a golden toilet at this residence, as does Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to reports.

“[Mindich] controlled the work of the so-called ‘laundry room’, where criminally-obtained funds were laundered,” Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (Nabu) said last week.

Ukrainska Pravda reports that both NABU and SAPO began to get threats of “retribution” only hours after the raids occurred. Following Zelenskiy failed attempt to put both anticorruption bodies under the direct control of the General Prospector, a presidential appointee, with the Law 12414 on July 22, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), also under the control of the president, has been harassing the staff of both organs, and specifically targeting those working on the Operation Midas investigation, according to local reports.

Critics have said the decision was designed to look tough, but actually dodged the bullet. Arrest warrants have not been issued for either man, despite their obvious central role in the kickback scheme and copious evidence of their guilt.

“By the looks of it, the president can't really avoid jailing three of his friends – in line with Lee Kuan Yew's dictum – if he is to maintain any claim of effective governance,” Ukrainska Pravda said in deep dive into the scandal, but that has not happened yet.

On the positive side, supporters have pointed out that an investigation of this importance and scale would be impossible in somewhere like Russia and underscores the vibrancy of Ukraine’s civil society that appeared following two sets of popular so-called coloured revolutions that is effectively holding the president to account.

By revoking their citizenship, Zelenskiy has put both men beyond the reach of Ukrainian law. Moreover, while the sanctions will make doing business or retrieving any assets they still have in Ukraine, such as property, the three-year term of the sanctions allows them to return to Ukraine after the scandal has blown over.

Further revelations are now widely expected as the scandal mushrooms, the worst political crisis Zelenskiy has faced since taking office in 2019.

Sanctions

Zelenskiy has been criticised for not asking for arrest warrants and choosing lesser responses that may not satisfy public demand for firm action in the face of a mushrooming scandal.

Serhiy Fursa, a Ukrainian investment banker and political commentator, wrote last week: “We cannot afford for the Ukrainian president, for the Ukrainian government, to lose its remnants of legitimacy during the war. Otherwise, we risk losing the state in the same way as during the first world war, when desertion at the front came on top of mass despair and political discord,” the Financial Times reported.

Zelenskiy enacted a decision by the National Security and Defence Council (NSDC) to impose sanctions against businessmen for three years, according to Presidential Decree No. 843/2025 dated November 13.  The sanctions against Mindich and Tsukerman include:

• Deprivation of state awards of Ukraine and other honours;
• Asset blocking – temporary deprivation of the right to use or dispose of assets belonging to the individuals or entities concerned, as well as any assets over which they may directly or indirectly (through other individuals or legal entities) exercise rights equivalent to ownership;
• Complete cessation of trade operations;
• Full suspension of resource transit, flights and transport through Ukrainian territory;
• Prevention of capital withdrawal from Ukraine;
• Suspension of the performance of economic and financial obligations;
• Complete termination of licences and other permits;
• Prohibition on participation in privatisation or leasing of state property by residents of foreign states or entities controlled by them;
• Prohibition on the use of Ukraine's radio-frequency spectrum;
• Full suspension of the provision of electronic communication services and use of electronic networks;
• Ban on public and defence procurement of goods, works, and services from legal entities;
• Complete ban on entry of foreign non-military and military vessels into Ukrainian territorial waters, internal waters, ports, and aircraft into Ukrainian airspace or landing on its territory;
• Full ban on transactions involving securities issued by sanctioned persons;
• Prohibition on increasing the authorised capital of companies and businesses;
• Introduction of additional measures in the areas of environmental, sanitary, phytosanitary, and veterinary control;
• Suspension of trade agreements, joint projects, and industrial programmes in specific sectors, including security and defence;
• Ban on the transfer of technologies and intellectual property rights;
• Prohibition on the acquisition of land ownership in Ukraine.

Zelenskiy damage control

The president is now in full damage control mode. Zelenskiy launched a broad shakeup of its state-owned energy companies to tighten governance and restore confidence in a sector.

“This morning, we already held an online meeting with Prime Minister of Ukraine Yuliia Svyrydenko regarding further decisions to clean up and reboot the management of the energy sector and the institutions related to it,” Zelenskiy said.

“We are beginning the overhaul of key state-owned enterprises in the energy sector. Alongside a full audit of their financial activities, the management of these companies is to be renewed. Today, together with Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko and Minister of Economy Oleksii Sobolev, we defined the course of action,” Zelenskiy said.

The first priority is Energoatom, where Zelenskiy demanded that all conditions be set within a week to form a new supervisory board and prepare for a complete renewal of the management board.

At the state-owned hydropower utility, Ukrhidroenergo, the president ordered an urgent open competition for a new chief executive and the completion of its supervisory board. Similar steps were directed for the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU), where both a new CEO competition and finalisation of the supervisory board must begin immediately, the president demanded.

The reforms also extend to Naftogaz, Ukraine’s largest oil and gas company. “Naftogaz of Ukraine – as the current supervisory board's contracts expire in January next year, a competition must be announced and conducted for the new board so that it can start operating in January 2026,” he added. 

Going into detail, the president listed five key tasks: 

• Instructed the Cabinet of Ministers to submit an urgent draft law to the Verkhovna Rada on renewing the composition of the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission.

• Announced the renewal of the leadership of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate and the State Energy Supervision Inspectorate.

• Directed the Prime Minister to submit a nomination to the Verkhovna Rada for the new Head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine.

• Ordered full coordination with law-enforcement and anti-corruption bodies to renew the Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) and complete the competition for a new Head of ARMA by year-end.

• Called for a prompt audit and preparation for sale of assets and shares owned by Russian entities or collaborators who fled to Russia, ensuring all such assets are used fully in Ukraine’s interests — supporting defence and contributing to the state budget.

It remains to be seen if these measures will be about to head off the palpable popular disappointment with Zelenskiy. There have already been calls for his resignation over the fracas by his political opponents, but the majority of Ukraine appear to be reluctant to demonstrate and demand a new government while the war is still going on, according to local reports.

SAPO leaks

In the expanding investigation, Ukrainian anti-corruption officials launched a new investigation of possible leaks in the Mindich case, according to the top prosecutor. Mindich skipped the country only hours before NABU raided his home, suggesting that he was tipped off.

Ukraine's Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) is investigating allegations that its deputy head, Andriy Synyuk, leaked information, according to Ukraine's chief anti-corruption prosecutor Oleksandr Klymenko. The leaks occurred in the two weeks leading up to the November 10 searches at Mindich’s home and office, Ukrainska Pravda reports. An internal probe is under way and a criminal case into the allegations is possible.

NABU has video footage of Synyuk meeting with Oleksiy Meniv, a lawyer who visited Mindich's apartment building in the same two week period. Synyuk has denied leaking any information and said he was friends with Meniv. Synyuk also said that Meniv's former wife and children live in the same house as Mindich.

Backlash

The scandal comes at a very inopportune time for Ukraine, as Brussels attempts to rally its member states to back a €140bn loan for Ukraine, using the frozen $300bn of Central Bank of Russia (CBR) assets as a Reparation Loan. One vote to seize the money, the only money available to fund Ukraine given America’s withdrawal and the rocky state of most European countries, already failed in November and a second vote in December is expected to also fail. In a sign that Brussels doesn’t expect the Reparation Loans idea to fail, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen floated the idea of an alternative plan for EU member states to extend bridge loans to Ukraine from their own pockets to tide Bankova over in the first part of 2026, Politico reports. Separately, the publication reported that Ukraine will run out of money in April if no new money is found.

Estonia’s former president and ardent Ukraine supporter Toomas Ilves came out unequivocally to call on Kyiv to issue an EU-wide arrest warrant for Mindich as the only acceptable course of action – something that Zelenskiy has avoided doing so far. In a post on X, Ilves said that only Ukraine can initiate the warrant and stressed that doing so is essential if Kyiv hopes to maintain its prospects for joining the European Union, The Kyiv Post reports.

“If Ukraine wishes to have any chance to join the EU it needs immediately to issue an EU wide arrest warrant for Timur Mindich, the man accused of embezzling 100 million Euro and who fled the country just before being arrested. Only Ukraine can issue it,” Ilves said.

The scandal has also been a gift for Europe’s leaders that have long opposed extending more funding to Ukraine.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a social media post after the scandal broke: “The golden illusion of Ukraine is falling apart. A wartime mafia network with countless ties to President 
@ZelenskiyUa  has been exposed. The energy minister has already resigned, and the main suspect has fled the country.”

“This is the chaos into which the Brusselian elite want to pour European taxpayers’ money, where whatever isn’t shot off on the front lines ends up in the pockets of the war mafia. Madness,” he added. “Thank you, but we want no part of this. We will not send the Hungarian people’s money to Ukraine. It can be put to far better use at home: this week alone we doubled foster parents’ allowances and approved the 14th month’s pension.”

Domestically, claims that Zelenskiy is implicated have led to calls by his opponents to step down. Former MP and member of the ruling presidential party Servant of the People Oleksandr Dubinskyi tweeted: “It's obvious, it’s time to call for Zelensky’s impeachment over wartime plundering. The evidence is clear - he’s been stealing from the country in its darkest hour.  He must resign.”

However, Dubinskyi is currently in jail on corruption charges and for traitorous Russia-links. But he is also a close associate of the jailed oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who funded Zelenskiy presidential campaign. Dubinskyi’s comments highlight the danger of a major political crisis should Zelenskiy be forced to resign and the fractions that would line up to replace him should he fall. Kolomoisky himself blamed Zelenskiy for the scandal and also called for his resignation. 

"He’s an idiot, damn it. What kind of mafia boss could he possibly be?" Kolomoisky told journalists in the courtroom during a hearing about his former business partner Mindich. Kolomoisky suggested that the corruption scheme was orchestrated inside the President’s Office and Mindich was made the “fall guy.”