DEAR READER,

Ukraine is reeling from a $100 million corruption scandal at its state nuclear company, Energoatom. Authorities from NABU and SAPO have launched a 15-month-long probe codenamed “Midas”, alleging officials pocketed 10-15% from contracts for building fortifications against Russian attacks. We asked Stanislav Storozhenko to break down what’s really going on behind the scandal.

Also, we are putting the finishing touches on the next issue of New Eastern Europe, diving into the memory of the communist past of the region. Consider becoming a member to get the last edition of 2025.

Enjoy reading this week’s “brief”!

— Giorgi Beroshvili, Editor

As the fourth year of full-scale invasion draws to a close, the Ukrainian government has been embroiled in a political scandal of unprecedented audacity. And, alas, stupidity.

An investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), known as “Operation Midas” – an ironic reference to the golden toilet found in the home of Zelenskyy’s former business partner and friend Tymur Mindich – outlines a scheme involving a key ally of the president and several high-ranking officials. According to NABU, they personally profited from contracts for a state-owned enterprise that manages Ukraine’s nuclear energy sector. They also benefited from construction projects for protective structures in the energy sector during the war. Mindich plays the leading role in the investigation.

NABU also directly points to other key figures: Oleksiy Chernyshov, a former deputy prime minister, who was already under investigation before this scandal broke out; former energy minister, German Galushchenko; as well as the current energy minister, Svitlana Grynchuk – who was, in fact, Galushchenko's protégé. NABU notes that these figures may have been involved in the laundering of millions of dollars. The latter two have already resigned.

Simply put, the people who were entrusted with industries critical to the country during the most deadly period in Ukrainian history turned them into personal ATMs for cash and, as in the case of Chernyshov, for the construction of elite real estate properties. And these are only the names known at this time and visibly a part of the scheme.

Adding to the horror is the fact that the recordings of conversations between the participants in Operation Midas, released last week, are not the final batch. Investigators have already indicated that the case includes a defence component as well. In other words, top-level theft was taking place in an area on which the survival of the front – and ultimately the nation – literally depends. And it is entirely possible that other sectors essential to the functioning of the state may also be implicated.

Ukrainian society, currently enduring 10-12-hour blackouts due to new Russian attacks on the energy sector, reacted sharply to the words of one of the figures involved in Operation Midas, who said it was “a pity” to build defensive structures and that the money could instead be stolen. Ukrainians also reacted with pain to the fact that the perpetrators laundered some of the scheme’s money directly through Russia.

According to NABU, around 100 million US dollars passed through the Kyiv back-office belonging to the family of former parliamentary Andriy Derkach, who was recruited by the FSB and is now a Russian senator, and some of the money was handed out directly in Moscow. It is known that it was Derkach who had laid the foundations for Russian influence in the Ukrainian nuclear energy sector.

In this story, the cynicism of the president's entourage blends so strongly with the above-mentioned stupidity that it immediately brings to mind 2019: and the end of Petro Poroshenko's presidency through an equally high-profile scandal in the defence sector, on the eve of presidential elections. The case involved the theft of money in kickbacks for the supply and production of weapons at the state-owned corporation Ukroboronprom, which was responsible for everything related to Ukraine’s defence-industrial complex. This case was the final nail in the coffin of Poroshenko's hopes for re-election at the time. Historia se repetit.

However, the reality is even harsher today. The country is currently in perhaps the most difficult phase of the war, with the Russians advancing on most key fronts and the front line crumbling even more methodically than in 2022. And there is no prospect of a transfer of power in Ukraine as Zelenskyy and his government will remain at the helm of the country. And in a situation where the government – and even the president himself, acting through the prosecutor general and the head of the Security Service of Ukraine – tried in July 2025 to dismantle NABU and the special anti-corruption prosecutor’s office (SAPO), and where the public can now see the results of their work, it has become clear that the corrupt nature of the current authorities has been exposed and that efforts to stifle independent investigations have failed.

Having recovered from the initial shock, Zelenskyy unusually forgot about filming his evening address to the nation (the first time he had not filmed an address was in February 2025, after a quarrel in the White House), but the next day he took action: he supported the investigation by NABU and SAPO, called on ministers to resign, and imposed sanctions against Mindich and one other person involved in the case, who had already managed to flee. And, according to Ukrainska Pravda, their escape was likely aided by the deputy head of SAPO, appointed by the former prosecutor general who is considered a loyal figure of the president's office.

“The president of a country at war cannot have friends,” the Ukrainian president said in an interview with Bloomberg after the scandal broke. But does Zelenskyy have a plan for restoring the undermined trust of western partners, on whom the survival of the European defence outpost effectively depends? This question remains open.

Since February 2022, Ukraine has been living as if each new year erases the previous one – and transforms the country into something completely different from what it was just a year ago. Each year, we as a nation have gone through different stages of accepting reality. At the end of 2021, Zelenskyy entered the year with a significantly damaged reputation – an offshore scandal, falling ratings, and growing public fatigue. Then everything changed.

Ukrainians went from being euphoric by the liberation of parts of the Kharkiv and Kherson regions to being irritated by the methods of mobilization and warfare; from admiring the president on the cover of Time magazine, who did not leave besieged Kyiv, to protesting against the decision of the parliament he controlled in the summer of 2025.

Yet, the fog of war has dispelled all illusions – about the government and about our own strength. Ukrainians entered this war as a society that believed that courage and bravery could compensate for institutional weakness. Now they live in a reality where courage and bravery remain the only certain resource and institutional weakness and corruption have become a threat no less dangerous than Russian missiles.

Ukraine's survival is a vital priority for Europe. And now the West needs to make it clear to the authorities in Kyiv: support will continue, but only if Ukraine fights its internal enemies as resolutely as it fights the Russian occupiers.

— Stanislav Storozhenko, Ukrainian journalist and producer