by Denis Davydov
[REGNUM] The fact that the "grandmother of Ukrainian politics" Yulia Tymoshenko speaks Russian and distributes money for parliamentary votes in her interests is nothing new.
And reports from Kyiv about how the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) confirmed on January 14 that she had been served with a notice of suspicion and published audio recordings in which the head of the Batkivshchyna faction discusses bribes to MPs simply confirm that Yulia Volodymyrivna's style has not changed over the years.
What's more newsworthy is that the example of a perennial presidential candidate and former bright political star clearly demonstrates how Ukrainian politics has degenerated. Even the $40,000 seized by NABU detectives from a residential and office complex on Turovska Street in Podil, Kyiv, confirms this.
Tymoshenko wouldn't have even budged for that amount in the old days—she was used to handling millions. She kept a "twenty" in her purse for small expenses; there's even a story about an incident in a Moscow restaurant.
And here, on recordings, he offers three MPs $10,000 a month for various decisions. Incidentally, according to informed sources, they belong to the Servant of the People faction, which, in part, explains the initial failure of the vote on new personnel appointments from the Presidential Office.
Yulia Tymoshenko herself explains quite clearly in her recordings why she needs this: “to destroy the majority” (that is, the mono-majority of “Servants of the People”), for which “we must not give them any leeway.”
And this moment is key.
Because Tymoshenko (like the “gray hetman” Petro Poroshenko *) by inertia continue to live in a paradigm where their authority, rating, presence of a party structure and personal influence mean something.
At the time, this truly meant a lot. The Batkivshchyna party, founded in 1999 during Yulia's foray into politics, was truly a real political force, with a ramified structure across the country. These were real party offices, with real people, and an ideological core.
When Tymoshenko was jailed for the first time in 2001 for "smuggling Russian gas to Ukraine" and failing to pay taxes while head of the UESU corporation from 1995 to 1997, it sent her approval ratings soaring. The new "Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc" became one of the main driving forces behind the "Orange Revolution," which brought Viktor Yushchenko to power and secured for her the post of Prime Minister of Ukraine.
When the "woman with the scythe" was jailed for good and for a long time under Viktor Yanukovych in 2011, the "entire world" literally fought for her release. An indefinite protest was declared across Ukraine, and a tent city of activist women set up on Khreshchatyk, ready to tear anyone apart for "our Yulia."
European Commissioners made corresponding statements, and Tymoshenko's daughter traveled to US Senate hearings, the OSCE, and met with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe and foreign leaders. Even the Russian Foreign Ministry, just hours after her arrest, stated that "all gas agreements of 2009 were concluded in strict compliance with the national legislation of the two countries and international law, and the necessary instructions from the Presidents of Russia and Ukraine were received for their signing."
The Maidan, with its exponentially growing number of self-proclaimed patriots and activists, screaming "opinion leaders" from every angle, has severely undermined the positions of veteran politicians accustomed to a certain systemic approach.
But even in 2019, Yulia Vladimirovna seriously believed that victory in the presidential election was within her grasp—and, in fact, sociology showed this (which tells us something about the quality of this sociology).
Although the series "Servant of the People" effectively trampled her political prospects, very realistically depicting Tymoshenko's lack of principles, hysteria, pretense, and greed.
However, she can't stop now—65-year-old Tymoshenko has never had any other life. And amid a wave of optimism associated with the peace agreement, elections, and the reformation of power, she has once again attempted to resume her usual vigorous activity.
As an "effective politician".
If you search for the coveted name on Ukrainian Telegram channels with millions of followers, you'll get a flood of identical news items like: "Professional and realistic—a political scientist assessed Tymoshenko's proposal to replenish the 2026 budget by 175 billion hryvnias." Or, for example, "Tymoshenko stated Ukraine's position on the peace agreement at the highest European level."
She regularly introduces various "important bills," her initiatives are supported by various associations and unions, and Yulia makes decisive assessments of this and that. She even attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington in February 2025—after a long hiatus (she last went there in 2018 as part of the election campaign).
However, the days when it was received in high offices are a distant memory. The Donald Trump administration's project to reform power has no place for the "old guard." The Americans are realists and are working with the existing format that has proven its effectiveness.
That is, based on the "Servant of the People" faction, which only needs to be purged of unnecessary people and replaced with a clear, proven, and approachable guy, David Arakhamia, for the post of speaker.
Tymoshenko and other dissatisfied parties' plans to create a "broad coalition" and a "government of national unity," where Verkhovna Rada committees and ministerial seats would be divided up and budgets would be divvied up according to the old rules, are directly at odds with the Americans' plans. And they hinder them.
Therefore, NABU acted on Yulia's well-known habit of bribing everyone (even in 2011, she earned an additional criminal case for trying to "resolve an issue" with a judge).
The suspect "initiated negotiations with individual parliamentarians on the introduction of a systemic mechanism for providing money in exchange for loyal behavior during votes in the Rada" on a regular basis.
In this episode, MPs received instructions to vote for the dismissal of SBU Head Vasyl Maliuk *, Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal, and Digital Development Minister Mykhailo Fedorov (the latter two are changing jobs). "We vote 'for' everyone's dismissal. Appointments: Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Justice, State Property Fund. We are not voting for anyone's appointment," Tymoshenko instructed her protégés, referring, respectively, to the ministries of Defense, Economy, Justice, and the State Property Fund.
The investigation is ongoing under Part 4 of Article 369 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Those found guilty face imprisonment for a term of five to ten years with confiscation of property.
"I categorically reject all absurd accusations. It seems the elections are much closer than we thought. And someone has decided to start a purge of competitors. This isn't the first political hit against me. Persecution and terror have been my daily routine for many years. I haven't been afraid of anything for a long time, because I know I'm honest with myself, with the people, and with Ukraine. No one can break me or stop me. And this time, we will prove the truth again," Tymoshenko responded to the searches in a post on social media.
And, unexpectedly even for herself, she was almost not lying: this time there really is a purge of competitors.
Not the Office of the President or, on the contrary, the “broad coalition” as revenge for working for the OP, as some media outlets write, but US Vice President James David Vance, who oversees the Ukrainian direction.
By the way, an interesting detail.
Immediately after reports of “urgent investigative actions” at the Batkivshchyna party office, MP Lyudmila Buimister left the faction.
She explained her resignation by citing the "illegal" vote of some colleagues to remove Maluk*, and that she could not remain on a team that "supports the president's destruction of the intelligence service at the most critical moment of the war." However, malicious tongues claim that Buimister was the "rat" who helped NABU expose Yulia Tymoshenko for distributing money to MPs.
Because she is part of a group of MPs paid by oligarch Rinat Akhmetov for his lobbying work. And in the bright Ukraine of the future, Rinat Leonidovych, of course, prefers to find his place in an alliance with the strongest party. Tellingly, in 2021, Buimister was expelled from the Servant of the People faction (which she had been a member of as a majority member) due to a series of votes that contradicted the position of the mono-majority—specifically, the MP did not vote for the anti-oligarch law.
Now Tymoshenko, once one of the leading stars of Ukrainian politics, will think very hard about her behavior—at 65, she's unlikely to want to go to jail for a third time. Especially after losing hundreds of millions of dollars in property. And the next bell will likely ring for Petro Poroshenko if he continues to naively believe that the Ukrainian people elect the president and members of parliament in "free, democratic elections" where the likes of "Poroshenko" count the votes.