Ukraine scrambles to limit damage from blockbuster corruption scandal

“The president was very clear: For him, there is no such thing as an untouchable person involved in corruption or crime. He’s a very principled person. First of all, he himself is not corrupt,” Zelenskyy’s top adviser, Andriy Yermak, said in an interview with the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network, of which POLITICO is a part.

“Everything that has happened is the result of absolutely free investigations,” Yermak said. “It demonstrates that all these bodies are independent and working.”

Restoring trust

Citing Russian infiltration, Ukraine’s parliament in July abruptly voted in favor of a law that would have stripped independence from key anti-corruption watchdogs and placed them under political control.

Zelenskyy signed the bill into law, but U-turned under heavy pressure from Western allies who saw it as an anti-democratic move.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) was, at the time, investigating Tymur Mindich — Zelenskyy’s former business partner and co-owner of the Kvartal 95 Studio, a production company set up by the comedian-turned-president.

Mindich fled to Israel earlier this week before he was exposed by prosecutors as the alleged ringleader of the multimillion-dollar energy sector plot, and has not been reached for comment by POLITICO.