On November 19, the head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak wrote that he arrived in Turkey as part of a delegation led by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
According to him, all meetings are taking place according to plan. He is also in constant contact with representatives of the administration of the US President Donald Trump, in particular with Special Representative Steve Witkoff.
The previous evening, The Economist’s Oliver Carroll wrote that Witkoff was scheduled to meet Yermak in Istanbul but canceled the meeting. Witkoff may have been unaware of the political crisis in Ukraine due to the corruption investigation at “Energoatom”.
Witkoffʼs meeting with the Ukrainian delegation could be about a new American plan to end the Russian-Ukrainian war. Axios reported that the 28-point plan is being developed by Witkoff in consultation with Putinʼs special representative Kirill Dmitriev.
Politico writes that US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Army Chief of Staff General Randy George arrived in Ukraine on an unannounced visit to discuss the peace process. These are the highest-ranking Pentagon officials to visit Ukraine this year. The Americans will meet with Ukrainian politicians, including President Zelensky.
Also, two sources told Babel the day before that Yermak was going to fly to London to meet with the former commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and now ambassador Valerii Zaluzhnyi. This could have happened against the backdrop of the political crisis and demands (in particular from MPs 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 corruption investigation 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 records 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 ("Ryoshik"), 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 Ustimenko.
The NABU recordings also show the Minister of Energy, who at the time was Herman Halushchenko. He was searched in connection with the case, and on November 12 he was removed from his position as Minister of Justice.
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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