Head of President's Office says Zelenskyy is not involved in corruption, as he himself initiated the fight against it

Andrii Yermak, Head of the President's Office, has stated that Volodymyr Zelenskyy has no connection to corruption schemes in the energy sector and emphasised that it was Zelenskyy himself who initiated the fight against corruption in Ukraine.

Source: Yermak in an interview with the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network, which includes Politico

Details: According to Yermak, Zelensky is "a very principled person" and "not corrupt".

Yermak stressed that Zelenskyy must remain beyond suspicion, as he was the one who "declared the fight against corruption" and allowed "absolutely free investigations" that demonstrated the independence and effectiveness of anti-corruption institutions.

Meanwhile, Yermak suggested that "some political forces" were using anti-corruption investigations to discredit Ukraine's leadership.

He also noted that baseless accusations that damage reputations can happen to anyone, adding that conclusions should not be drawn before court decisions and investigation results.

Background:

• Ukrainska Pravda recently published a report showing that SAPO Deputy Head Andrii Syniuk repeatedly met with Oleksii Meniv, a lawyer who journalists say may be close to Tymur Mindich, the co-owner of Kvartal 95 and an associate of President Zelenskyy.
• On 10 November, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) reported that they had exposed a large-scale corruption scheme in the energy sector and released audio recordings. Earlier, UP sources reported that NABU was conducting searches at the homes of Tymur Mindich and Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko (who has been suspended as of 12 November). UP sources also reported that Mindich left Ukraine hours before the searches.
• On 11 November, journalists named all the suspects who had received notices of suspicion from NABU in the investigation into large-scale corruption within Ukraine's state-owned nuclear energy company Energoatom. An investigative reporting project by Skhemy found that the suspects were Tymur Mindich (referred to as "Karlsson" on the NABU recordings), former adviser to the energy minister Ihor Myroniuk ("Rocket"), Energoatom executive director for safety Dmytro Basov ("Tenor"), Oleksandr Tsukerman ("Sugarman"), Ihor Fursenko ("Roshyk"), Lesia Ustymenko and Liudmyla Zorina.
• Five individuals on the list of suspects have been detained. Two – Mindich and Tsukerman – have left Ukraine.
• Basov, Myroniuk, Fursenko, Ustymenko and Zorina have been assigned pre-trial restrictions with the option of bail. It was later reported that the High Anti-Corruption Court had received bail for Lesia Ustymenko and Liudmyla Zorina, the employees of the back office involved in money laundering around Energoatom.
• On 13 November, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy enacted a decision by the National Security and Defence Council (NSDC) to impose sanctions against businessmen Tymur Mindich and Oleksandr Tsukerman.

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