Mindichgate: one week on from the corruption scandal, what's going on in the government?
On 10 November, two events took place that were symbolic in Ukraine's history.
Firstly, the entire country learned who Tymur Mindich is and how much control he had over the energy sector.
Secondly, we woke up to a country without Mindich. As Ukrainska Pravda has already reported, the close friend of the president, having suddenly remembered that he held Israeli citizenship, crossed the border at 02:00, four and a half hours before his apartments were raided. The night before, the lights were still on in one of them.
How have the country's top offices been coping with the turmoil of the past week? Which members of the president's inner circle now live in fear of being served with notices of suspicion from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO)? Where has Rustem Umierov – former defence minister and current Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council (NSDC) – disappeared to, and how might this be connected to Operation Midas, the largest anti-corruption operation in Ukraine's history?
Ukrainska Pravda has been looking into the details.
"Mindich just parcelled the money out"
It's now a week since Tymur Mindich went into hiding in Israel, a fugitive from Ukrainian justice.
There are no more cars with special number plates pouring into the underground car park of the building where Mindich lived at 9A Hrushevskoho Street, and the country's political leadership is now facing its greatest challenges in six and a half years in power.
The members of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's inner circle who spoke to Ukrainska Pravda stressed that no government officials want to take the blame for what happened, but "some step forward needs to be taken". The longer this goes on, the clearer it becomes that with such a concentration of power in four hands, there is no way that Mindich – aka "Karlsson" – could have quietly "partisaned" his way through the government quarter unnoticed.
Opinions on the chief suspect in Operation Midas are divided.
The facts that the anti-corruption bodies have so far made public suggest that Tymur Mindich is only the tip of the iceberg. However, most Ukrainska Pravda sources in political and business circles believe that the notorious Karlsson is actually the submerged part of the iceberg.
It's also important to remember that the heads of NABU and SAPO repeatedly stated throughout the week that they are still processing the material, there are a lot of recordings and many codenamed individuals, so we can expect further high-profile revelations and names.
"He just parcelled it out" is how one Ukrainian businessman describes Mindich's role in the criminal organisation.
Another person on Ukraine's rich list reflects on Karlsson's role: "It doesn't matter who the cashier is – Mindich or Kurchenko. If there's demand for that function, it could be anyone." [Serhii Kurchenko is an oligarch who ran a lot of businesses under former pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych and was also known as "Yanukovych's wallet", or bankroller – ed.]
For now, Ukrainska Pravda sources close to the President's Office say, Ukraine's political elite is holding its breath – waiting to see who will be held responsible. After all, there aren't many people in Ukraine who could afford a personal "wallet" like Mindich, who the country only learned about last week.
With Yermak or without?
Several of Ukrainska Pravda's sources in the government and the President's Office say that Andrii Yermak, Head of the President's Office, has been trying to convince Zelenskyy that Ihor Kolomoiskyi, an oligarch who has been held in a Security Service pre-trial detention centre for three years now, may have been behind the problems that have beset the authorities over the past week.
"Find an enemy so you don't have to take the blame – that's one of the Office's favourite tactics," sources close to the President's Office have said.
Yermak's former deputy Andrii Smyrnov used a similar tactic in the past to hold onto his post; he was later served a notice of suspicion for illicit enrichment following an Ukrainska Pravda investigation. Yet right up until that moment, he continued to assure the president that he was under attack from his enemies.
Another of Yermak's deputies, Rostyslav Shurma, used the same strategy when he was accused of having embezzled UAH 300 million (about US$7.1 million) of public money paid to his brother's business in the temporarily occupied territories. Shurma insisted that it was Kolomoiskyi taking revenge.
Meanwhile, Kolomoiskyi himself has been weighing in on Mindichgate during court hearings, saying the president's business partner is a "scapegoat" who "isn't cut out to be a mafia boss".
Numerous political insiders say the Ukrainian leadership's main concern is whether Yermak might be charged in the course of the investigation into Mindich's criminal organisation.
A UP source in Zelenskyy's team summed it up like this: "Everyone inside the system understands exactly who was behind the attack on NABU in July. If they hadn't started that, if they hadn't made a mess of things, if they hadn't then gone after Klymenko [the head of SAPO – ed.] instead of calming down, this whole Midas story wouldn't have come out for a year or so – and not like this. It would have been business as usual: some people would have been quietly dismissed, some quietly charged, and that would have been it. But because of that attack, NABU had no choice but to make this scandal public. So everyone understands who really created this mess."
National Security and Defence Council Secretary working remotely
On 11 November, as it started to become clear that the criminal investigation would be looking into Mindich's influence on the defence sector, Rustem Umierov travelled to Turkiye on an "urgent" mission.
After the SAPO prosecutor stated during court hearings that Mindich had influenced the defence minister, Umierov publicly acknowledged that he had had contact with Mindich, but stressed that he had no influence over his decisions.
"Any attempts to link my work at the Ministry of Defence with the supposed 'influence' of certain individuals are unfounded," Umierov wrote on social media in response to the prosecutor's statement.
Nor was Umierov present at the NSDC meeting at which sanctions were imposed on Israeli citizens Tymur Mindich and Oleksandr Tsukerman.
Ukrainska Pravda sources among political heavyweights were quick to compare this official visit with "Chernyshov's trip", from which the now-disgraced minister had to be brought back by officers from Defence Intelligence of Ukraine. [Former national unity minister Oleksii Chernyshov has been formally served with a notice of suspicion of abuse of office and bribery in connection with undervalued land deals and alleged kickbacks. The scandal began to unfold once Chernyshov failed to return from a trip abroad in violation of the law – ed.]
Meanwhile, Umierov was said to be urgently trying to organise some meetings or find some international conference to attend.
As things stand now, political insiders are already placing their bets on whether the top official will ever return to Ukraine.
As with Oleksii Chernyshov in June 2025, Ukrainska Pravda sent an inquiry to the NSDC last Saturday, 15 November, asking when the secretary was due to return from the trip. At the time of publication, Ukrainska Pravda had still not received a response.
But Umierov posted on social media immediately after we sent our inquiry, stating that he was away on an official trip on the president's orders.
On the evening of 16 November, sources close to the President's Office told Ukrainska Pravda that Umierov had arrived in Florida. Beyond that, our sources' opinions diverged.
Some believe Umierov travelled there to visit his family, who live in the state. Others say he is due to meet representatives of the Trump administration. And although one does not rule out the other, it remains an open question when and whether the former defence minister and current NSDC Secretary intends to return at all.
"Everyone here is trying to stay upbeat and convince each other that he will come back. But I wouldn't bet on it. I very much doubt Rustem will be brought back," one member of Zelenskyy's inner circle joked to Ukrainska Pravda.
On 17 November, the Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne reported, citing government sources, that Umierov is expected to return to Ukraine on 20 November.
"The coalition is being torn apart"
Any political scandal is a problem not only for those forced to step down, but also for those expected to replace them.
In the case of the energy sector reboot, almost the entire leadership of the industry has to be replaced, including the minister. The chronic shortage of qualified personnel that has plagued the government in recent years is now compounded by the scale of the scandal.
Most suitable candidates are horrified at the prospect of joining the government or Energoatom, Ukraine's state-run nuclear power company, and finding themselves at the epicentre of the Midas case.
"Even before this, there weren't many people who wanted to work in the civil service because of PEP [politically exposed person] requirements and declarations, but add in the current pressures and the scandal, and this is a job for kamikaze applicants," one former member of Zelenskyy's team told Ukrainska Pravda.
Finding replacements for Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk and Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko is therefore proving to be a major headache.
Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko submitted motions for their dismissal to the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) last week. Since then, extensive searches for possible successors have been under way, but so far without results.
So on 18 November, parliament is expected to dismiss Hrynchuk and Halushchenko but is unlikely to appoint anyone in their place.
"There are no candidates," a senior government source told Ukrainska Pravda dryly and with an air of resignation.
"There are two categories: people the authorities would like to appoint but who absolutely refuse, and people who put themselves forward but whom the authorities don't want," added the chair of a parliamentary committee.
The preferred candidate for energy minister appears to be Serhii Koretskyi, CEO of Naftogaz, the Ukrainian state-run gas and oil operator. But Koretskyi has already turned down the job several times, pointing out that he only recently took over at Naftogaz. He has recruited people, arranged financing, started projects, and he wants to bring all this to a logical conclusion.
"It's the start of the heating season, and he doesn't want to abandon everything at Naftogaz, where he's begun to put processes in place, and move to the Ministry of Energy, where everyone's demoralised, the energy sector is in disarray, and the public environment is just right for career suicide. It's understandable why Koretskyi would say no," a Servant of the People MP told Ukrainska Pravda.
As well as Koretskyi, government sources mentioned MPs Andrii Herus, chair of the Parliamentary Energy Committee, and Andrii Zhupanyn and Yurii Kamelchuk, who also sit on the committee.
There isn't exactly an abundance of candidates for justice minister either. Prime Minister Svyrydenko suggested to Zelenskyy that the responsibilities be combined so that Taras Kachka, Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration, would also serve as justice minister.
"The idea was that the Ministry of Justice has to do the bulk of the legal work on these first 'Fundamentals' EU clusters, so everything could be tied to Kachka. But neither the president nor parliament accepted that idea," a senior Servant of the People figure explained.
For now, the president is collecting various names and options proposed by the prime minister, parliamentary leadership and other members of the government team.
As of the beginning of this week, no decisions have been made. The president is physically outside Ukraine, so the plan is that parliament will simply dismiss the ministers implicated in the scandal, the government will appoint acting ministers, and the search for candidates will continue.
Ukrainska Pravda sources within the government team say the prime minister's dismissal is not currently being considered, despite calls from the opposition.
"Svyrydenko is 90% likely to remain in post, simply because there is no alternative. Bringing back [former PM, now Defence Minister Denys] Shmyhal now would be even stranger. And no one else is volunteering to lead the government in the toughest winter yet," one member of Zelenskyy's team said.
But that isn't the biggest problem. A far more serious issue for the authorities is that everyone in the system, including parliament, is totally demoralised in the wake of the corruption scandal.
In October and November, parliament had only just begun to recover from the fallout following the crackdown on NABU and SAPO's independence in July. Operation Midas, which is clearly linked to the July events, has left the ruling majority reeling.
"One person made this giant mess in a single day, and now we've all been tarred with the same brush," one senior Servant of the People MP told Ukrainska Pravda.
NABU's operation came as such a shock to the "mono-minority" that for nearly two days the party's internal chats were frozen in meaningful silence. It wasn't until day two of the scandal, when Zelenskyy called for ministers to be sacked and imposed sanctions on Mindich, that the new reality began to dawn on MPs.
And they weren't the only ones it dawned on.
"Parliament is reeling. Everyone's playing their own game. The coalition is simply being torn apart. A lot of well-funded rivals are scenting blood. Our MPs are already being offered 'co-operation' [opportunities to defect to other factions]. This could really be the end of everything unless the president takes some tough decisions," one influential Servant of the People MP said on condition of anonymity.
It isn't just MPs who should be interested in exactly what those tough decisions could or should involve. Over the past week, the president has met with every key member of the government team. That was precisely what he asked them: to find a decision that would stabilise the situation.
Some of these meetings were publicly reported, including conversations with Prime Minister Svyrydenko, Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, Head of Defence Intelligence Kyrylo Budanov, and others.
According to people familiar with the discussions, most of those consulted by the president suggested various ways out of the crisis, but almost all of them, independently of each other, advised him to replace the head of the President's Office, Andrii Yermak.
"In parliament, it's now easier to count the people who wouldn't ask for him to be dismissed," a senior Servant of the People source told Ukrainska Pravda. "There's no direct blackmail, of course, but unless this happens, the faction will simply fall apart."
This use of the word "blackmail" isn't just random. It's rumoured that a sort of "coalition of the willing" has formed within the Servant of the People ranks who are threatening to leave unless Yermak is sent away for a "well-earned rest".
Ukrainska Pravda mentioned this initiative to most of the internal groups within the Servant of the People party, and it seems the organisational centre of the "revolutionary committee" can be located in the orbit of the Arakhamiia-Hetmantsev tandem, in alliance with the party's liberal wing. [Davyd Arakhamiia is the leader of the Servant of the People faction in the parliament; Danylo Hetmantsev is Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy – ed.]
It's too early to say whether this initiative has enough strength behind it. But the fate of the 2026 budget clearly shows how tense the situation in parliament is.
The budget was supposed to be considered in its second reading during this plenary week, but to avoid a failed vote, the leadership of both parliament and Servant of the People decided to postpone the consideration until December.
"We need to watch the storm first, because we have no right to let this vote fail," one senior Servant of the People MP concluded.
"No promises, no forgiveness"
"The president should be back in the country on Wednesday evening," said one influential source awaiting the next steps needed to overcome the crisis.
Among all the sources close to decision-makers in the government that Ukrainska Pravda spoke to, no one is in any doubt that the reset must be genuine, not just cosmetic.
It is still unclear what kind of "reset" they have in mind that would make this whole "governance system" simply disappear – especially given that Mindich, Kolomoiskyi's former consigliere, controlled not only half of Kvartal-95, but also half of the country.
Just how many interconnected officials were being sustained by the country's war-battered energy sector is something that even NABU and SAPO don't know at this stage.
"Open up the asset declaration of [Oleksii] Sukhachov, Head of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), and see where his wife received her salary. It's Energoatom," an influential law enforcement source told Ukrainska Pravda. "And has the SBI investigated anything related to them?"
Indeed, according to the YouControl online database, Iryna Sukhachova received a salary of UAH 190,000 (around US$5,100 as of 1 August 2023) from Energoatom in 2023.
In addition to Energoatom, since 2023, Sukhachova has also received a salary from the state-owned joint-stock company Market Operator, which is owned by the Ministry of Energy. She earned UAH 150,000 (US$4,000 as of 1 August 2023) in 2023 and over UAH 4.5 million (US$121,000 1 August 2024) in 2024 – far more than her husband.
During a court hearing to select pre-trial restrictions, former deputy prime minister Oleksii Chernyshov, who is accused of receiving over US$1 million from these criminal schemes, insisted he had nothing to do with these dealings. This is despite investigators highlighting correspondence between Chernyshov's wife and key suspects in the case. Ironically, the lights in the courtroom went out during that very hearing.
One influential official who is also waiting for an appropriate response from the president summed it up like this: "If the guarantor [of the Constitution, i.e. President Zelenskyy] isn't with them, then let him show it."
Meanwhile, Ukraine's strategic partners are divided in their views on Operation Midas and the political crisis it has triggered.
According to informed political sources, EU Ambassador to Ukraine Katarína Mathernová has been critical of the exposure of the political leadership during wartime, calling it excessively media-driven. Mathernová met with Yermak at the President's Office last week.
By contrast, the US and the UK have stressed the need for an objective investigation into all the circumstances, with no interference in the work of anti-corruption bodies and full cooperation from the authorities.
It's clear that restoring trust in the government – both inside Ukraine and abroad – is going to be extremely challenging. Especially if, say, Umierov doesn't come back or another top suspect flees the country.
Nonetheless, Ukrainska Pravda sources within the anti-corruption agencies say that plans to keep up the pressure on NABU and SAPO are still very much on the table at the President's Office and the Office of the Prosecutor General.
Authors: Mykhailo Tkach and Roman Romaniuk, Ukrainska Pravda
Translation: Myroslava Zavadska
Editing: Teresa Pearce