Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak is flying to London, where he will meet with former commander-in-chief and current ambassador Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
This was reported to Babel by two sources.
What exactly he wants to talk about is unknown. According to sources, Yermak already flew to Zaluzhnyi in the fall of 2024 and asked him to stay on the team. Zaluzhnyi then replied that as long as the war is going on, he is not thinking about politics.
Yermakʼs current trip comes against the backdrop of a political crisis and demands, in particular from deputies from the Servant of the People party, to release Yermak himself. The MP from “Voice” Yaroslav Zheleznyak previously claimed that Yermak appears on the "Mindich recordings" under the code name "Ali Baba".
Political crisis and investigation into corruption in the energy sector
On November 10 and 11, NABU released four parts of the wiretap audio recordings and announced a large-scale "Midas" operation to expose corruption in the energy sector.
According to the bureau, “Energoatom” counterparties were forced to pay kickbacks in order to avoid blocking payments for services and products supplied or losing their supplier status. This practice was called "barrier".
According to NABU, members of the organization systematically received 10-15% as a bribe from “Energoatom” counterparties. Using this scheme, they legalized approximately $100 million through an office owned by the family of former MP and current senator of the Russian Federation Andriy Derkach.
Five people were detained in this case, and seven were declared suspects. Their names were later announced by the SAPO prosecutor at court hearings:
- businessman Tymur Mindich, who appeared in NABU recordings as "Carlson" and is considered the organizer of the scheme;
- former advisor to the Minister of Energy Ihor Myronyuk (“Rocket”);
- Executive Director for Physical Protection and Security of JSC NNEGC “Energoatom” Dmytro Basov (“Tenor”);
- four "employees" of the back office for money laundering: Oleksandr Zukerman ("Sugarman"), Ihor Fursenko ("Rioshyk"), Lesya Ustymenko and Lyudmila Zorina.
Myronyuk, Basov, Zorina, Fursenko, and Ustymenko have already been sent to custody, and sanctions have been imposed against Mindich and Zukerman. Subsequently, a total of UAH 37 million in bail was paid for Zorina and Ustymenko.
The NABU recordings also show the Minister of Energy, who at the time was Herman Halushchenko. He was searched in the case, and on November 12 he was removed from his post as Minister of Justice.
And the SAPO prosecutor claimed that one of the defendants in the case interviewed Svitlana Hrynchuk, who later replaced Halushchenko as Minister of Energy.
Both ministers have resigned, and the Verkhovna Rada will consider the issue this week. In addition, Zelensky has already removed both ministers from the National Security and Defense Council.
NABU also claims that the participants in the scheme transferred money to former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, who has already been suspected of illegal enrichment and sent to custody.
President Zelensky and Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko reported an audit of the largest state-owned companies and a large-scale "reset" in energy management.
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