An anti-corrption investigation in Ukraine has expanded to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, heightening tensions within the country’s leadership. Zelensky himself has not been implicated in the investigation, but the case represents another political crisis for the Ukrainian president and is putting his leadership to the test, The Guardian and the AP reported on August 19.
The presidential office announced Wednesday that Irina Mudra, a deputy head of the office, had been dismissed. The move came shortly after local media reported that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine(NABU) had searched Mudra’s home as part of an investigation into an alleged money-laundering conspiracy. Her dismissal was carried out by presidential decree.
NABU said the investigation is targeting an alleged organized criminal conspiracy involving senior officials in the presidential office, current and former members of parliament, and top executives at a state-owned bank.
According to investigators, the suspects allegedly used a state-owned bank to launder money to raise UAH 150 million in bail for Herman Halushchenko, a former energy minister who has been charged with corruption.
This is not the first time that corruption investigations have reached Zelensky’s inner circle. Timur Mindich, a longtime associate of the president and co-founder of the television production company Kvartal 95, which Zelensky also co-founded, fled abroad while being investigated over alleged corruption involving contracts with Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear power company.
Andriy Yermak, once regarded as one of Zelensky’s most powerful aides, also resigned shortly after his home was searched and was later arrested on money-laundering allegations, adding to a string of corruption scandals involving the president’s close associates.
Mykhailo Fedorov, the former defense minister who was recently dismissed, has accused the Zelensky administration of being plagued by corruption and said the president has failed to keep it under control.
“Corruption is only a symptom,” Fedorov said. “The main problem lies much deeper.”
He also said Ukraine is facing a “structural governance crisis” and argued that presidential elections should be held even during wartime.
