Zelensky Faces Fallout from Major Corruption Scandal as Ukraine Battles on Eastern Front

Ukraine’s top military commander said Thursday he had visited troops defending a key eastern city under siege by Russian forces, even as President Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration was rocked by a deepening corruption scandal.

A day after Justice and Energy Ministers resigned amid an investigation into alleged graft in the energy sector, the government dismissed the vice president of Energoatom — the state-run nuclear power firm at the center of the probe — along with its heads of finance, legal, and procurement departments, and a consultant to the company’s president, Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko announced late Wednesday.

The Kyiv court has begun hearing evidence gathered over a 15-month probe by anti-corruption watchdogs, involving more than 1,000 hours of wiretaps. So far, five people have been detained and seven others implicated in a scheme that allegedly siphoned off around $100 million in kickbacks.

Investigators suspect Tymur Mindich — a co-owner of Zelensky’s former media production company, Kvartal 95 — of masterminding the conspiracy. His current whereabouts remain unknown.

The scandal has renewed scrutiny of what Zelensky and senior officials knew about the affair and revived memories of his failed attempt last year to curb Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies — a move he reversed amid mass protests and pressure from the European Union, which has made anti-corruption reforms a key condition for Ukraine’s membership ambitions.