“Commenting on the corruption investigation in the energy industry, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that Justice Minister Herman Galushchenko and Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk should leave their posts, and instructed Prime Minister Yulia Svyridenko to submit their resignations.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Source: Zelensky’s address
Details: In his address, Zelensky emphasized that there should be “maximum purity of processes” in the energy sector and that all anti-corruption investigations should receive full support from the government.
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The President also stated that the Cabinet of Ministers will provide assistance to law enforcement and judicial bodies, and the management of “Energoatom” will be “cleaned up and rebooted.”
Direct speech: “I believe that the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Energy cannot remain in their positions. This is a question of trust in particular. If there are accusations, they must be answered. The decision to remove them from the post is operational, the fastest. I asked the Prime Minister of Ukraine to have resignations from these ministers.”
Details: The President also asked the People’s Deputies of the Verkhovna Rada to support these statements.
In addition, Zelensky announced the NSDC’s decision on sanctions at the request of the government and announced that he would sign a decree on the application of sanctions against two people who appear in NABU’s case against Energoatom.
He also emphasized that during the war it is “absolutely abnormal” when corruption schemes continue to exist in the energy sector.
Read also: From the minister to the “watchers”: how the Energoatom embezzlement scheme worked and who is behind it
We will remind:
- The National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine has released the third part of the investigation into a major corruption scheme at Energoatom NAEC under the name “Midas”.
- Figures of NABU investigation, under the cover of officials, laundered tens of millions of dollars from the operator of the Ukrainian nuclear power industry “Energoatom”.
- According to NABU, the money laundering scheme is quite primitive and cynical: if a private business wanted to work (sell goods or provide services) with Energoatom, it had to pay a kickback of 10% to 15%. If you refuse, you will not receive payment and you will be removed from the list of suppliers.
- The participants called this mechanism a “barrier”: you either share the margin, or you stand in front of a closed door.
- The organizer of the scheme was a businessman, co-owner of “Kvartal-95” and former partner of President Zelensky, Timur Mindich (appears in NABU materials under the nickname “Carlson”), who managed to leave the country just a few hours before the NABU searches.
- Also, on November 10, former Minister of Energy Herman Galushchenko (in NABU records he appears under the nickname “Professor” or “Hera”) was searched, who, according to interlocutors of the European Parliament, still maintains his influence on the country’s energy through the current Minister of Energy Svitlana Grynchuk and many managers of this department, whom he personally appointed before his dismissal in July 2025.
- During the consideration of the NABU detective’s motion to detain Ihor Myronyuk, a figure in the investigation into corruption at Energoatom, the prosecution noted that Zelensky’s close friend Timur Mindych exerted influence on former Minister of Energy Herman Galushchenko and former Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov.
- Prosecutors also noted that Mindich built ties with Galushchenko thanks to ties with Zelensky and the minister’s “patronage” to him.
- In the morning of November 12 Prime Minister Yuliya Svyridenko reported that the Minister of Justice Herman Galushchenko was removed from his post after a high-profile NABU investigation into corruption at Energoatom NAEC.
- In one of the episodes of “Mindich’s films”, President Volodymyr Zelensky called Herman Galushchenko after Timur Mindich’s message.