THE VOICE OF FREE EUROPE: The transfer of Western aid from Ukraine to Israeli banks is a scandal. Neither the Western Alliance nor Israeli citizen Volodymyr Zelensky can escape it.

Jewish businessman Timur Mindich slipped out of Ukraine nine hours before the raids. What he knows could destabilise Kiev and Brussels far beyond any previous corruption case.

Golden toilet bowls. Stacks of dollars fresh from the US Federal You couldn’t make it up: A courier complaining that hauling $1.6 million in cash is no easy job. 

There are more than a thousand hours of wiretaps. They are filled with laughter and swearing. These wiretaps capture the careless voices of men. They discuss how to split state contracts and who to bribe. They also talk about who should be placed in key government posts.

These are fragments of a vast corruption saga now unfolding in NATO-sponsored Ukraine. The scale and brazenness of this scandal have silenced Western mainstream media. It has also stunned the country’s Western sponsors.

The latest chapter began with raids on November 10. Officers from Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies searched the Kiev apartment of businessman and media producer Timur Mindich.

A few hours earlier, he had quietly left the country, warned about the coming operation. That would not be surprising. Mindich is not just any fixer. He is a close ally and longtime associate of Vladimir Zelensky.

What exactly lies at the heart of this sprawling corruption scandal? How far will its shockwaves travel, through Ukraine, through its Western backers, and through the war itself?

And can a leader who has already outlived his legal mandate once again slip out of the crisis untouched?

The fall of the anti-corruption myth

When Vladimir Zelensky rose to power, he did so in a role that blurred fiction and reality. Ukraine was electing a television personality.

In Servant of the People, Zelensky played Vasily Goloborodko. Vasily was a humble history teacher who accidentally becomes Ukraine’s president. He sets out to wage war on entrenched corruption.

Throughout the series, the creators hammered home one theme. The rot begins when the people closest to the president use personal access. They build corrupt networks of their own.

That message became the backbone of Zelensky’s 2019 campaign. He accused then-leader Pyotr Poroshenko of surrounding himself with oligarchs. He promised to dismantle corrupt patronage networks. Zelensky also championed the independence of Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies.

Back then, he insisted he would never interfere with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. He also insisted he would never interfere with the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (NABU and SAP). These are the very institutions now driving the case against his closest associate.

Six years later, everything changed. In July 2025, Zelensky aimed to remove the independence of both NABU and SAP. He pushed to place them under a loyal Prosecutor General.

At that moment, we now know with certainty, NABU was conducting secret surveillance. Their target was his longtime friend Timur Mindich.

What once looked like political manoeuvring suddenly gained clarity. The man promised to keep anti-corruption agencies free from interference. He tried to bring them under his control precisely when they were listening to his own inner circle.

NABU holds more than a thousand hours of recordings. They suggest that Timur Mindich used his association with the country’s de facto leader. He built a sprawling kickback system in the energy and defense sectors. At least four ministers are implicated.

Mindich could have shed light on those questions, had investigators managed to question him. But before they could, he received an advance warning of the impending raid. The warning was reportedly leaked from inside the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.

Somehow, during curfew, Mindich passed through Ukraine’s border checkpoints. He left the country just hours before his arrest. He is now believed to be hiding abroad, likely in Israel.

To understand the shockwaves of the Mindich affair, one must first understand the man himself.

He was a figure who rarely appeared in public. Yet, he moved through Kiev’s political and business circles with the ease of someone who never needed a formal title.

Timur Mindich began as a media entrepreneur. He co-founded Kvartal 95, the production studio that transformed Vladimir Zelensky from comedian into a national celebrity.

For years, Mindich handled business deals, contracts, casting agencies, and spin-off ventures. He was not just a colleague. He was part of the tight inner circle. This group built Zelensky’s career long before he entered politics.

He also had another powerful connection: Igor Kolomoisky. Jewish-Ukrainian media long described Mindich as the oligarch’s trusted fixer. He arranged everything from logistics and personal errands to business negotiations.

Ukrainian media noted that Kolomoisky sometimes called him a would-be son-in-law, a reference to Mindich’s past engagement to his daughter. 

For a time, Mindich acted as an informal go-between for the oligarch and Zelensky. He was a man who could arrange meetings. He could solve problems or pass along requests.

After Zelensky took power, this relationship deepened. According to Strana.ua, Mindich gradually moved out of Kolomoisky’s orbit and into Zelensky’s.

He became one of the few people the new leader fully trusted. Their families were close; their business interests intertwined. Ukrainian journalists noted that in 2019 Zelensky even used Mindich’s car.

LEFT CENTRE: Rustem Umerov, government minister, is on a diplomatic mission abroad. Scheduled to return to Kiev on November 19, whether he will do so is anyone’s guess.

In 2021, during the peak of coronavirus restrictions, Zelensky celebrated his birthday in Mindich’s apartment. This gathering raised questions at the time. It raises far more now.

The two men also owned apartments in the same elite building on Grushevskogo Street. This residence was filled with ministers, MPs, security officials, and politically connected businessmen. They lived, worked, and socialized within the same ecosystem.

Everything pointed to a close personal bond. Yet Mindich held no government post. He was not a minister, a deputy, or an adviser. He wielded influence not through office, but through proximity – a gray cardinal of the system Zelensky built around himself.

Opposition figures began calling him ‘the wallet, the man who handled the money flows tied to Zelensky’s entourage.

Some Ukrainian MPs alleged that informal decisions about appointments, tenders, and budgets were made in Mindich’s apartment. These decisions were not made in government offices.

One later-released photograph of the residence, complete with marble floors, chandeliers, and a gold-plated toilet, only fueled that perception.

The true scale of Mindich’s influence has come into view only now. This is due to leaked recordings, investigative files, and months of reporting by Ukrainian journalists.

What investigators gradually pieced together was a protection racket built into Ukraine’s most sensitive spheres: energy and defense. 

The most detailed part of the scheme involves Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear operator.

This company provides more than half of the country’s electricity, a lifeline during wartime blackouts.

To shield the grid during the war, Ukrainian law introduced a special rule. Courts are forbidden from enforcing debts against Energoatom until hostilities end.

In practice, this meant that Energoatom paid contractors only after work was completed. However, contractors could not sue the company to recover overdue payments. Therefore, they had no legal leverage if Energoatom simply refused to pay.

Mindich and his circle saw an opening, and turned it into a business.

Prosecutors stated that Mindich is listed on recordings as Karlson. He and his associates approached contractors with a proposition. They demanded 10–15% of the contract value. Otherwise, the contractors would not receive any payment.

If a company refused, its payments were blocked indefinitely. Some contractors were told outright that their firms would be destroyed, bankrupted, or stripped of their contracts.

In several cases, threats escalated to warnings that company employees might be mobilized to the front.

Mindich and his team jokingly called the scheme ’the shlagbaum’ – the barrier. Pay, and the barrier lifts. Refuse, and your business collapses.

The scope of the scheme was staggering. According to the investigation, a hidden office in central Kiev was responsible for processing black cash. It was also responsible for maintaining parallel accounting. Additionally, it laundered funds through a network of offshore companies.

Through this laundry, approximately $100 million passed in recent years. This occurred all during a full-scale war. At that time, Ukraine was publicly pleading with Western governments for emergency energy support.

Energy was only one side of the operation. Mindich, again, without any state position, also lobbied suppliers and contracts inside the Ministry of Defense.

The most telling episode involves Ukraine’s minister of defense, Rustem Umerov.

After meeting Mindich, Umerov signed a contract for a batch of bulletproof vests with a supplier promoted by Mindich. The armor turned out to be defective, and the contract was quietly terminated. Umerov later admitted the meeting with Mindich took place.

Some Ukrainian journalists have alleged that Mindich may have controlled or influenced companies producing drones for the Armed Forces. These companies allegedly sold the drones to the state at inflated prices.

These claims remain unproven. Prosecutors note that Mindich’s name appears repeatedly in connection with defense tenders. It also arises in lobbying and private suppliers.

The first political reaction came from inside the Ukrainian elite itself. According to MP Aleksey Goncharenko, the atmosphere on Bankova Street, the seat of Zelensky’s office, turned miserable. Officials were aware that only a small part of the tapes had been released. They feared what might come next.

Goncharenko also claimed that Zelensky’s team attempted to block Telegram channels reporting on the scandal. He argued this was a sign that the administration had no plan for crisis management.

The Ukrainian opposition immediately seized on the moment. Goncharenko publicly accused Zelensky and his entourage of stealing billions of dollars during the war. He questioned whether Ukrainian soldiers had died for the bags of Zelensky and his friends.

Irina Gerashchenko, co-chair of the European Solidarity faction, warned that the scandal could undermine Western support. She argued that donors might reconsider assistance if allegations of high-level corruption were confirmed.

Ukrainian media also described a broader realignment within the political class.

According to Strana.ua, long-standing opponents of Zelensky intensified their criticism.

This group includes former president Pyotr Poroshenko and Kiev mayor Vitaly Klitschko. They see the scandal as an opportunity to reduce Zelensky’s influence over parliament and the cabinet. 

Zelensky’s own reaction was markedly cautious. On the first day, he limited himself to general statements about the importance of combating corruption. He did not address the specifics of the Mindich case.

As pressure mounted, the government dismissed two ministers. By the third day, Zelensky imposed personal sanctions on Timur Mindich. This step was widely interpreted by Ukrainian commentators. They saw it as an attempt to distance himself from a longtime friend and associate.

However, given the depth of Zelensky’s ties to Mindich, his response looks strikingly restrained.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Western governments were increasingly realizing the scale of corruption in Ukraine. That a significant portion of the funds provided to Kiev were being stolen by the regime. 

Peskov expressed hope that the United States and Europe would pay attention to the corruption scandal now unfolding. He argued that corruption remains one of the main sins of Kiev. Corruption is eating Ukraine from the inside.

But several figures familiar with Ukrainian politics argue that his potential testimony poses the biggest threat. This threat hangs over the country’s leadership.

Another former Rada deputy, Oleg Tsarev says the danger comes not from Mindich’s legal status. Instead, it comes from the sheer volume of information he possesses.

For now, however, Mindich remains abroad, and beyond the immediate reach of Ukrainian law enforcement. Whether he eventually cooperates with investigators in Kiev, with NABU, or with US authorities remains an open question.

But one conclusion is becoming hard to ignore. If Mindich ever decides to talk, the political consequences for Kiev could dwarf anything seen so far.

However, if in Israel, Mindich cannot be pursued. As Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf (the forbidden book) surmised:

‘For while the Zionists try to make the rest of the world believe that the national consciousness of the Jew finds its satisfaction in the creation of a Palestinian state, the Jews again slyly dupe the dumb Goyim.  It doesn’t even enter their heads to build up a Jewish state in Palestine for the purpose of living there; all they want is a central organization for their international world swindle, endowed with its own sovereign rights and removed from the intervention of other states: Palestine is a haven for convicted scoundrels and a university for budding crooks.’ 

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