How big is Ukraine’s corruption problem as Zelensky’s ex-chief of staff charged

Volodymyr Zelensky’s former chief of staff was charged with corruption and money laundering on Monday as Ukraine’s galvanised watchdog pressed on with its widening investigation.

Andriy Yermak, who was until late last year the president’s closest advisor, was accused of laundering some UAH 460 million (£7.73m) through luxury accommodation near Kyiv. He denies ownership in the project.

Ukraine’s top anti-corruption agencies announced today they had charged six suspects in connection to the probe, which they said was linked to Operation Midas, the growing crackdown on an alleged plot to skim $100m from the country’s energy sector.

A law enforcement source told the Kyiv Independent that Timur Mindich, a close associate of Zelensky, and former deputy prime minister Oleksiy Chenyshov were also among those newly charged.

The head of the bureau, buoyed in recent years to investigate allegations of graft in the top tiers of government, said on Tuesday that Zelensky was not currently a subject of any such probe.

The Independent looks at the implications of the growing inquiry.

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What are the latest allegations to rock Ukraine?

Ukraine’s main anti-corruption agencies said on 12 May that they had charged six suspects in a new money-laundering investigation centred on a pricey residential development outside of the capital.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) alleged the suspects were part of an organised group laundering assets they had obtained illegally.

They say nearly £8m was laundered over a period of four years, from 2021 to 2025, through the cottage complex in Kozyn, a settlement of 3,500 people just south of Kyiv.

Without naming Yermak, in line with Ukrainian law, NABU said in a statement late on Monday they had charged “the former head of the president’s office of Ukraine” with laundering millions through the construction site.

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Yermak, who had led Ukraine through peace negotiations with the United States, left his post in November following a raid on his office as part of Operation Midas.

The watchdogs said the new charges relate to Midas, an investigation into an alleged $100m (£74m) corruption scandal surrounding Energoatom, a public energy company and the largest producer of electricity in Ukraine.

A source told the Kyiv Independent that suspects in that case allegedly gave money to Chernyshov, the former deputy PM, for the construction of the homes in Kozyn.

One of the houses said to have been financed through the Energoatom scheme was meant for Yermak, the source said.

A lawyer for Yermak denied that his client had any involvement in the alleged laundering and said he believes there are no grounds for the case against the former head of the president’s office.

What is Operation Midas?

Anti-corruption investigators announced Operation Midas in November as they identified what they said was a large-scale corruption scheme in the country’s energy sector.

NABU and SAP said their discovery was the result of 15 months of wiretapping work and cited 1,000 hours of audio recordings and more than 70 raids.

At the heart of the probe was $100 million in funds that NABU said had been laundered by an alleged criminal organisation consisting of current and former energy officials, government ministers, a former deputy prime minister, and a businessman.

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The accused are said to have manipulated contracts at Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear energy company, to take kickbacks - secret payments, like a bribe, made in exchange for a favour.

NABU said the group took bribes from contractors worth some 10-15 per cent of each contract’s value.

Crucially, some of these contracts were handed out to build up fortifications against Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.

The scandal emerged as Ukraine battled rolling blackouts as Russia pounded energy infrastructure through a particularly bleak winter.

Who has been affected?

Investigators claim to have traced the scheme to Timur Mindich, a film producer and co-owner of President Zelensky’s former TV studio, Kvartal95.

The two were close until at least 2021, when Mindich held a surprise party for Zelensky at his flat, during the lockdowns.

Mindich fled Ukraine in the night of 10 November 2025, just hours before NABU enforcers raided his home.

Prosecutors also claimed that Rustem Umerov, a former defence minister, was pressured to buy cheaply made Chinese bulletproof vests at extortionate rates.

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He has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing, saying the contract was terminated due to the product’s failure to meet requirements.

Umerov remains heavily involved in Ukraine’s dialogues with the United States aimed at ending the war with Russia.

German Galushchenko, who led the energy department from 2021 until 2025, was detained by border guards in February as he tried to leave the country on a train, officials said.

Investigators said the charges were related to an alleged scheme involving offshore companies benefiting his relatives. Galushchenko - also known as Herman Halushchenko - has denied wrongdoing.

How widespread is corruption in Ukraine?

Ukraine inherited a legacy of corruption when it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Despite the considerable strides of NABU and SAPO since 2015, corruption remains endemic.

Today, 87 per cent of Ukrainians perceive corruption as a widespread phenomenon, according to a survey of more than 1,000 respondents last summer.

This is more sharply felt in rural communities. But only seven per cent of respondents believe corruption has improved as a whole since last year.

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Last year, Transparency International - an organisation monitoring corruption around the world - gave Ukraine a score of 36 out of 100 in the Corruption Perceptions Index, with a lower score reflecting higher rates of corruption.

The UK, by comparison, received a score of 70 in 2025, reflecting a steady backslide from 82 over the last decade.

Andrii Borovyk, executive director at Transparency International Ukraine, said that despite limited improvements - such as a push for greater transparency on the handling of seized assets - reforms have been overshadowed by efforts to limit the independence of the anti-corruption agencies, until they collapsed under public and international pressure.

Ukraine saw the first major protests in the streets since the 2022 invasion in July after Zelensky suggested reining NABU and SAPO in to “cleanse” them of what he called “Russian influence”.

“Thanks to those protests, we were able to defend the independence of the anti-corruption bodies, and the resulting +1 point in the Corruption Perceptions Index can be viewed as a positive sign,” Borovyk said.

“This is the result of the work of the HACC, the NABU, and the SAPO—and the result of society’s efforts in defending their independence.”

Ukraine has a “concrete reform plan” available, the group assessed in its 2025 summary, but “did not demonstrate real progress or readiness to implement it”.

Battling corruption remains a priority in Ukraine's reform effort as it eyes membership of the European Union, which requires the country shake off the decades-old scourge of graft.

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