by Denis Davydov
[REGNUM] This is definitely a serious matter: amid a devastating blow to a corruption scheme involving his closest associates, Volodymyr Zelenskyy missed his evening address to the nation via telephone.
The last time this happened to him was during the "cardboard Maidan" on July 22, when street protests began against Bankova's attempt to strip the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) of their powers.
Regnum News Agency reported back in the summer that the attack is not on small fry (even if they have big money), but on the "leader of a warring nation" himself, effectively pushing him toward loyalty and the ability to negotiate.
And in the current situation, Zelenskyy and his right-hand man, Yermak, have no good options: the case has already been declared the largest corruption scheme in Ukrainian history, and the NABU very cleverly continues to publish audio recordings and release new details piecemeal.
Therefore, the strategy of both the Presidential Office and the government is to not react to the scandal at all, to try not to comment on it or even notice it at all, to declare full support for the fight against corruption, to keep the defendants in their positions, especially the key ones, hiding behind the pretext that "guilt has not been proven, the court will sort it out, and when there is a verdict, then we will fire them."
In particular, the Minister of Justice and a key figure in embezzlement in the energy sector (including the construction of shelters for thermal power plants and other important facilities), German Galushchenko, was not fired, but merely suspended from his duties.
On a personal note, he wrote, "I completely agree: a political decision needs to be made, and then we'll sort out all the details. I'm not clinging to the minister's position, and I won't be. I believe that suspension pending an investigation is a civilized and appropriate course of action. I will defend myself legally and prove my position."
Meanwhile, the position is broadcast daily in court through yet another batch of recordings, in which Galushchenko, Timur Mindich (as the primary leader of the scheme), and other defendants literally rule the world.
A man with the status of advisor to a former minister and former assistant to a member of parliament interviewed current Energy Minister Svetlana Grinchuk for her position (and she was under the complete control of Mindich's shadow office). Overnight, the decision to dismiss the president of NNEGC Energoatom was made and the procurement policy of the state energy giant was determined.
Specifically, a murky scheme involving the purchase of Russian-made reactors from Bulgaria was orchestrated through a shadow office, managing all tenders and financial flows. According to investigators, on October 10, the day of Zelenskyy's meeting on restoring power supply, they planned to increase kickbacks from 10 to 15 percent for the construction of protective structures at the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant.
The participants in the scheme discussed who would be appointed to Sviridenko's new Cabinet and who would replace Oksana Markarova as ambassador to the United States—these conversations were read out by a SAP prosecutor. Incidentally, Galushchenko, who eventually became Minister of Justice, was considered for the ambassadorial position.
"Look, I'm replacing Markarova anyway. I have several candidates—all very worthy, close people. I'll send them over, and you can choose. Shmyg ( then-Prime Minister Denys Shmygal —Ed. ) refused, you know why. Because they'll definitely ban him, " the prosecutor reveled in quoting the suspects' conversations.
But most importantly, the money flowing through was laundered through a separate office in the center of Kyiv, and in total, according to investigators, approximately $100 million passed through this system.
And this money stuck to the hands of the president’s personal friends.
Former Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of National Unity, and, more importantly, Zelenskyy's godfather, Oleksandr Chernyshov ("Che Guevara"), who began to suffer under the fire last summer when he attempted to flee the country, have already been charged with illicit enrichment. Detectives have documented the transfer of over $1.2 million and nearly €100,000 in cash to him and his wife.
Moreover, in the published recordings, Mindich's ally and financier, Alexander Tsukerman ("Sugarman"), speaks of the character with disdain, offering to give him money in old bills for his bad behavior. However, the money was not given out for free, but for the construction of houses in an elite cottage community in the village of Kozin, which continued throughout the war.
NABU and SAP opened a separate investigation into the case after it was leaked through "independent journalists," believing, not without reason, that Chernyshov could have been concealing funds "obtained through criminal means" while involved in real estate.
And new data, it turns out, has completely confirmed this.
But the interesting stuff doesn't end there, as following the energy deal, an announcement is already being made about Mindich's "influence" on the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, specifically on Rustem Umerov, who was taken to the National Security and Defense Council and is currently being sent to Istanbul for prisoner exchange negotiations.
Whether he will return from there now is a very interesting question, since the same “independent journalists” are already laying out details about how Umerov was forced to fulfill a contract to purchase bulletproof vests from a specific manufacturer, which did not arrive on time and turned out to be of poor quality.
The first tender, worth 1.6 billion hryvnias, was won by a sharashka company with the lowest bid, but it didn't have a sales license. Then the entire process was cancelled and a new tender was announced – this time for 200 million hryvnias. It was won by another sharashka, purchased two days before the tender, with the same bulletproof vest model it had won in the first tender – a Chinese-made, terrible-quality one.
The Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council from Turkey himself stated curtly that “any attempts to link my work in the Ministry of Defense with the ‘influence’ of any individuals are unfounded.”
He allegedly met regularly with manufacturers and suppliers of equipment and weapons, lobbyists, and so on as minister. "In particular, there was a meeting with Timur Mindich, where the issue of body armor under the contract was raised. As a result, the contract was terminated due to non-compliance with requirements, and no product was delivered," Umerov said, and so far only his press secretary has defended himself.
After all, any spoken word can hurt: given NABU's tactics, tomorrow another batch of conversations could be released revealing that Zelenskyy's people stole not only from energy shelters but also from the lives of military personnel.
Although it's already obvious that this is the next level of developments. They'll tear Galushchenko, Chernyshov, and Mindich to pieces (whose interests lie in cooperating with the investigation) —then they'll go after Umerov, Yermak, SBU head Maliuk, and the former and current prime ministers.
For the simple reason that they are all part of a single "Ze-team" and possess information that will bury their beloved leader, stripping him of the legitimacy that underlies "leading the country's defense." After all, Zelenskyy's formal term in office, as we recall, expired last year.
To make sure no one thought this was a joke, almost all major Western media outlets published articles about the high-profile case: DW*, Euronews, Anadolu, France 24, the Guardian, Al Jazeera, Reuters, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the British Times, etc.
"Mr. Zelensky, elected president in 2019, entered politics promising to root out the corruption that has long plagued Ukraine. However, allegations of insider dealing and corruption continued during his presidency, particularly in the energy sector," the NYT tersely notes.
There's also a huge resonance within Ukraine, especially since the OP has long been at war with the media holding company of Soros's main representative in Ukraine, Czech businessman Tomas Fiala, and veteran American agents like Ukrainska Pravda, which were trained specifically for the purpose of undermining and overthrowing the government.
The scandal is being actively covered by major bloggers, including those with millions of followers who have long since found protection. Therefore, there's considerable resonance among the population—just look at Ukrainian Facebook**, Twitter, or comments on Telegram channels.
The situation is made even more poignant by the fact that thermal power generation has suffered another severe blow, with power outages lasting 12 hours or more in some regions. Meanwhile, bad news is pouring in from the front about crumbling defenses. So, it's easy to see this as a direct consequence of Zelenskyy's cronies stealing funds to protect energy facilities and build fortifications for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Meanwhile, as noted political scientist Kost Bondarenko writes, bundles of dollars in banknotes uncovered by NABU after a search at NNEGC Energoatom have become a subject of intense interest in the United States.
"A barcode allows us to trace the time of issue and the intended purpose of a particular program through which the dollar mass moves through space. In short: these idiots didn't get rid of the evidence in the form of the barcoded bills."
The American experts concluded: "Image analysis of uncirculated US Federal Reserve banknote bundles bearing genuine stamps from the Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta and Kansas City reveals that these bundles are newly issued banknotes not intended for immediate circulation. This type of packaging is intended for interagency transfers. Their presence in Ukraine indicates unauthorized diversion of funds within the supply chain," Bondarenko was quoted as saying.
This means an internal investigation will now begin into how these funds appeared in Ukraine, and it will no longer target just someone like Mindich, but many once-influential people in the United States. And then the steamroller of repression will spare no one.
So, according to rumors, the "opposition" in the person of Petro Poroshenko *** has already begun vigorous activity in cobbling together a front at the local level, in regional centers, luring mayors or suddenly former mayors like Odessa's Gennady Trukhanov to their side.
Those who dream of replacing the Mindichs and Yermaks have a long-standing plan, which we've also discussed: the creation of a new parliamentary coalition, the resignation of the cabinet, the formation of a "government of national unity," and then a move toward a peaceful settlement and presidential elections. Zelenskyy will obviously no longer be able to participate in these elections.
Now he has only one proven way left - to try to get out of this using proven methods: to stage some kind of provocation with a ton of casualties or to declare a total mobilization of all ages and a decisive counter-offensive with missiles and drones.
But now it seems that even this won't help.