UKRAINE: Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies have confirmed they are carrying out a search at the residence of Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s influential chief of staff and chief negotiator in the latest peace discussions.
Footage captured by reporters showed roughly 10 investigators entering the government district in Kyiv as part of an expanding probe into an alleged kickback scheme linked to the nuclear energy sector and reportedly orchestrated by a presidential associate who has since fled the country.
According to statements from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), investigators are conducting “procedural actions” involving the head of the president’s office.
Yermak widely regarded as the second most powerful official in Ukraine confirmed the search, saying investigators were granted full access to his apartment and that his legal team was cooperating fully with authorities. “There are no obstacles from my side,” he wrote on social media.
The scandal broke earlier in November but briefly faded from public attention after Donald Trump unexpectedly published a 28-point peace plan seen as favorable to Russia. Friday’s searches, however, are expected to revive public scrutiny just as Ukraine has been carefully lobbying Washington with a 19-point counterproposal, with Yermak leading talks in Geneva with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
NABU previously announced that it had uncovered a major corruption scheme within the government, in which insiders allegedly demanded 10–15% kickbacks from companies working with Energoatom, the state-owned nuclear power generator and a key pillar of Ukraine’s energy system.
Timur Mindich, a longtime friend and business partner of Zelenskyy from their Kvartal 95 entertainment company days, was identified as the suspected ringleader. He left Ukraine shortly before investigators came to detain him, abandoning his Kyiv apartment.
President Zelenskyy has condemned the scheme, though questions remain about whether senior officials were aware of the activities, given the number of high-ranking figures implicated. Earlier this month, he dismissed two ministers, and the case has sparked widespread anger among citizens already struggling with prolonged electricity outages due to Russian attacks on infrastructure.
The investigation relies on more than 1,000 hours of secretly recorded conversations collected by NABU, some of which have been made public. In one recording, a suspect lamented that building protective structures for power stations was “a waste” because the money could instead be embezzled.
NABU said it will release further information soon.
