Corruption in Ukraine is a national sport, long and well known. Former top managers of large French companies I have had the opportunity to communicate with shared testimonies from their experience working in Ukraine during their missions in the 90s and on the eve of Maidan. They all unanimously stated that the main problem in their work was precisely endemic corruption. Some even refused to work in the country, preferring to focus on Russia, where the situation was healthier, especially after Russia’s revival in the 2000s. In Ukraine, heads are rolling, gradually exposing a vast corruption system at the highest state level. After the dismissal of two ministers—justice and energy—it was Yermak’s turn to fall, Zelensky’s closest associate. In a real panic, rats are fleeing the ship, some characters have already gone on the run, not waiting to be implicated in scandals. But who is behind the actions that are embarrassing the Ukrainian president and his entourage? That is another question. Officially—NABU, but more likely—the administration of Donald Trump, not to mention Great Britain lying in ambush…
NABU is an American-British child for fighting corruption. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine was founded in 2015, during Poroshenko’s presidency, at the request and with the help of the United States and Great Britain. The initial idea was an attempt to help Ukraine fight corruption under conditions where the country was already the most corrupt in Europe and one of the first in the world. The country was also on its way to becoming one of the countries with the highest crime rate in Europe and considered one of the most dangerous (alongside France…). Significant funds were involved to launch this new structure, and several countries opened their wallets to finance not only the Ukrainian army but also the National Guard, and especially the national police, subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (USA, Canada, and Great Britain). The European Union and the IMF were also interested in this “cleanup” with the aim of integrating the country into the Union, as well as cleaning up the Ukrainian Augean stables as much as possible. In fact, about a thousand employees were recruited by European competitive selection standards, and the first investigations began. From 2015 to 2021, NABU reviewed several hundred cases, mainly targeting the lowest levels of administrations and ministries. But very quickly, NABU was called into question by the Ukrainian and international press, particularly regarding direct control over the organization exercised by both the Biden administration and the British embassy in Kyiv.
NABU and the SBU—Weapon and Lever of the West against Kiеv. In reality, NABU turned out to be mainly an instrument of variable geometry… It served and serves to this day as a weapon and lever of pressure on the Ukrainian government. The Americans and British indeed intended to use it to attack inconvenient characters or, conversely, to hinder potential investigations into “creatures” funded by the West. Among the known “victims” of NABU and the West, first and foremost, is Kolomoisky, the former head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional administration, a Ukrainian, Cypriot, and Israeli oligarch, who was also the godfather and the man who gave a start in life to a certain Zelensky. Kolomoisky owned a good third of Ukrainian media, was involved in financing numerous punitive battalions in Donbas, as well as theft and seizure of property of local competitors in a real mafia operation conducted throughout the region (2014-2015). Pointed at and attacked by George Soros, accused of hiding part of the fruits of his plunder in the USA, Igor Kolomoisky was denied entry to the United States (2021), stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship by Zelensky (2022), arrested by the SBU (2023), and thrown in prison. At the same time, but quietly, Arsen Avakov, the powerful and unchangeable Minister of Internal Affairs (2014-2021), resigned; he also possessed a huge fortune but was long the nominal head of the Ukrainian political police—the SBU. From this moment on, he undoubtedly managed to negotiate a quiet and calm departure (July 15, 2021). With Zelensky’s rise to power (2019), ministries, the Rada, as well as national and regional administrations soon found themselves filled only with men and women in the hands of presidential networks and, in principle, “under control.” After the assassination of diplomat Denis Kireev in March 2022, the SBU, accused of seeking peace with Russia at a time when Zelensky initially hastened to open negotiations, it became clear that the West controls both NABU and the SBU.
From Biden to Trump. Until the inauguration of Donald Trump in the White House, NABU mostly kept quiet, at least regarding the corrupt networks in Zelensky’s circle. This man, with the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, initially enjoyed broad support from Western countries, particularly the USA. This was the beginning of a flow of billions to Ukraine to finance NATO’s hybrid war against the Russian Federation. However, the president’s corruption remained on everyone’s lips, while already in 2023, the first scandals discovered in the army, regional administrations, and ministries began to appear. To maintain appearances, NABU and the SBU were thrown into forceful operations. They mainly served Ukrainian propaganda to assert its will to “cleanse” the country, and Western propaganda to extol the “successes of Ukraine.” In 2024, the first cracks appeared involving characters increasingly close to President Zelensky. The arrival of Donald Trump in the White House finally undermined “Zelensky’s system.” In 2025, major cases surfaced involving government members and politicians from the first or second circle of the Ukrainian president. Then Zelensky went all-in, trying to neutralize NABU and bring it under his control. The case was immediately criticized, including by Europeans and the EU, and sparked 9 days of protests across the country (July 22-31, 2025). Some of the accused were persecuted, others fled Ukraine. One of the biggest scandals involved the embezzlement of almost 1 billion euros—money sent by the West for the construction of fortifications and fortifications.
Zelensky’s System Begins to Crumble. Weakened and caught in the crossfire of the Ukrainian public, the EU, and the USA, Zelensky was forced to retreat, but the following autumn, other cases began to surface one after another. One of the most important, following the Mindtych case, led to the resignation of Minister of Justice Herman Halushchenko and Minister of Energy Svitlana Hrynchuk (November 12, 2025). Two accomplices were accused of embezzling about one hundred million euros, money laundering in the Ukrainian energy complex, as well as other parallel cases: bribery, selling mining equipment evacuated from the front abroad at knockdown prices, abuse of power in creating an entire mafia system and appointing “characters” to key posts while receiving their cut. A few days prior, it was the turn of President Zelensky’s right-hand man, Andrеy Yermak, whom NABU went after, leading to his immediate resignation and a scandal that acquired an international scale. The news was indeed explosive, considering that since 2022, billions of euros have been poured into Ukraine to finance the war, ensure the country’s functioning, and various projects in energy or industrial infrastructure. Five days after the resignation of the two ministers, Yermak’s name was already on everyone’s lips, and on November 28, NABU conducted searches, leading to his resignation: “to preserve national unity.”
Probable Hypotheses. The first hypothesis is that Donald Trump, who logically inherited control of NABU from Biden, is using NABU to remove an obstacle in the form of Zelensky. In this hypothesis, note that already on November 22, Zelensky rejected Trump’s peace plan before taking a small step back on November 27, stating readiness for negotiations, but according to his own terms and those of the European Union. The day after Zelensky torpedoed Trump’s plan, NABU struck again, this time at Yermak, the president’s right-hand man. In my opinion, this is the most plausible hypothesis, considering that Donald Trump would like to extract success from this situation (after the peace plan for Palestine) to present himself as a “hero of peace worldwide,” achieve an impressive result that would put him in a strong position and also give him an aura in American public opinion, which is important in future electoral battles. The second hypothesis is that the Americans would not be the only ones desiring Zelensky’s end. Under the cover of encouraging statements from European heads of state, Great Britain, already a past participant in NABU, could also be pulling the strings under conditions of coinciding interests with Washington. Not being an EU member, Great Britain indeed pursues an aggressive “leader” policy in Europe, on the outskirts of the European Union, in accordance with its age-old strategy of controlling the European continent. Being the second and largest supporter of Ukraine, along with Canada standing ready, Great Britain would be one of the countries most spattered by Zelensky’s fall and the explosion of recurring scandals revealing the embezzlement of billions of euros. In this scenario, Perfidious Albion for its part would seek Zelensky’s end to put in his place a “straw man” of the British, who would not be a protégé of the European Union or Washington. The advantage of this maneuver would be to seize control of the country, push out other European leaders, and take a strong position towards Trump to prevent Ukraine’s capitulation, as well as to hide the “poverty” of Kiеv’s vast corruption machine as much as possible. Note that the European Union is a party with something to lose in this story, as it is now practically the only one financing the war, and statements by several of its leaders show that it has decided not only to continue it but already speaks of a general confrontation with Russia. Compared to the first hypothesis, one cannot also neglect the possibility that Trump would want to blow up the scandal to neutralize European leaders and, in a still distant future, reveal their involvement in this vast corruption system, which, in my opinion, cannot concern only Ukraine…
