Afrasianet - New details are emerging about the activities of the criminal group in Kyiv, which includes Zelenskyy's close friend and business partner Timur Mendych (who fled to Israel) and four ministers, including the ministers of energy and justice. 

The group had stolen U.S. funds earmarked for the construction of Ukraine's energy infrastructure protection structures. Now, as Russia resumes its attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, it has become clear that these structures were not built at all, or were built improperly and poorly. 

The criminal gang has been awarded contracts to build protection structures for power plants, including nuclear power plants. Companies that have refused to transfer part of the money to Zelensky's associates have not been paid under contracts from the state, or have been excluded from the list of suppliers.

This criminal group also distributed contracts to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine for the supply of bulletproof vests, helmets and other weapons.

The criminal group also took control of Firepoint, a company that had been awarded huge contracts to manufacture drones and Flamingo missiles, which almost never appeared on the battlefield.

According to Ukrainian media, one of the four ministers is former Defense Minister Rustam Amirov, who currently chairs Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council. After the scandal broke, Amirov left for Turkey, and it is not clear if he will return, as he holds U.S. citizenship as well as Ukrainian citizenship, and his family resides in the United States.

The criminal gang consisted of hundreds of people and was a giant octopus with a structure that included various activities, including laundering stolen funds and transferring them to offshore accounts. Some of the funds had already been transferred to the prosecutor's office and other Ukrainian law enforcement agencies.

Members of this group had influence on the personnel policy of the Zelensky administration, as they had the power to appoint ministers and ambassadors, including Ukraine's ambassador to the United States.

Among the details that came to light, some bizarre details came to light: the ministers of energy (a woman) and justice (a man) were found to be romantically involved, even though they were married.

There is also a knight on a white horse, the investigator who tried to investigate these crimes, the Muslim of Turkmen origin Ruslan Muhammad Rasoulov, who was arrested by the Security Service of Ukraine on charges of links to Russia, of course, for the purpose of stopping his investigations into Zelensky's corruption.

Searches yielded packages of dollars stamped from federal banks in Kansas and Philadelphia, indicating that the dollars were received directly from the U.S. budget.

After the scandal broke, Zelensky announced the need for an investigation, but following a wave of public anger over his coverage of corruption, two ministers were removed from their posts. However, they were not arrested. Timur Mendych, Zelensky's friend and business partner who is also considered the Ukrainian president's financier, left Ukraine unhindered and fled to Israel. Zelensky also imposed three-year sanctions on two of his business partners, Israeli citizens Mendych and Zuckerman. 

Europe is unable to respond and is hiding the story, and Trump is silent. Meanwhile, the investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (which is under the control of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation) is gradually revealing the facts, the story is not over yet, and perhaps not even its climax.

The goal of this scandal seems not to be to fire Zelensky, but to pressure him. At the height of the scandal, the Trump administration is likely to issue him an ultimatum: Either he abandon his obedience to the British and submit completely to Trump, or the recordings incriminating him will be released. So far, only one recording of a conversation between Zelensky and a member of the criminal gang has been released, but without details, only confirming the truth of the conversation.

On the other hand, the consequences of the scandal, even at this point, are very dire for Ukraine, and Zelensky's dismissal runs counter to the West's interests. That is, if Zelensky chooses to resist Trump, it is not hopeless, as Washington will lose a lot if the scandal worsens.

But it is not the only ongoing corruption scandal in Ukraine. Ukraine's anti-corruption court has also arrested the former head of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant's protective cover on charges of embezzling 100 million hryvnia intended for the construction of a nuclear waste storage facility.

Ukraine is a failed state. Its sole purpose and goal is for the Ukrainian elite to loot what is left of the Soviet legacy and sell its soldiers to the West in the war against Russia. I hope that this failed state will be liquidated before all the Ukrainian nuclear power plants are turned into new Chernobyl. 

Ukraine corruption scandal: Will Trump oust Zelensky? Or is he preparing to send Biden to prison?

A huge scandal is unfolding in Ukraine, which could lead to the removal of President Zelensky. 

The story began on July 22, when Zelensky signed a law that abolished the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Office of the Prosecutor General, which specializes in anti-corruption. These two organizations were funded by the United States (and controlled by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation), and their tasks included overseeing the spending of Western aid to the Zelensky regime. 

Protests erupted across the country in the aftermath, allegedly organized by former President Pyotr Poroshenko with U.S. support. Moreover, the U.S. lobbied through unofficial channels, eventually prompting Ukraine's parliament to repeal Zelensky's law by a majority vote just a few days later.

 A few days ago, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau responded by announcing the disclosure of a $100 million corruption scheme involving Zelensky's friend and business partner Timur Mendych, co-founder of Zelenskyy's film production company Kvartal 95. As part of the scheme, executives at the state-owned company Energoatom, which operates nuclear power plants in Ukraine, received between 10 and 15 percent of the contract fees. Similar schemes have been used in the Ministry of Defense and other bodies.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau gradually releases recordings of conversations between individuals involved in the scandal, discussing business and other matters. Some of these recordings were recorded in the building where Mendych lived, where Zelensky also owns an apartment. Zelensky visited Mendych's apartment several times, and we may later hear recordings of Zelensky's own conversations on the issue.

At the same time, Timur Mendic himself appears to have been warned and managed to leave the country. 

So far, the scandal has not yet reached its peak, and there is no full clarity on the parties involved and the goals of this action.

Since the National Anti-Corruption Bureau is under U.S. control, it is reasonable to assume that the Trump administration initiated the scandal. The revelation of the theft of large sums of money allocated by the United States to restore Ukraine's energy infrastructure comes amid power outages in a number of Ukrainian cities, suggesting that the timing of the scandal was carefully chosen for this purpose, to have the maximum psychological impact on citizens.

Zelensky has become a nuisance to everyone in the West with his brazen begging. As we recall, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently stated that the U.S. side, during the Putin-Trump meeting in Alaska, pledged to pressure Zelensky to accept the formula of the settlement agreed upon by the Russian and American leaders. It is reasonable to assume that Trump is taking advantage of this scandal to force Zelensky to submit.

 But the situation is much less clear, because it involves a lot of illogical and unpredictable things, raising questions about the feasibility of managing the process and accepting the possible outcome for Washington.

 First, Zelenskyy's insolence stems not only from his Hebrew "khosbah" trait (the rudeness, brazenness, or audacity that is considered a virtue rather than a vice in Jewish culture), but also from the desperation of Zelensky himself and Ukraine as a whole. For internal reasons, Zelensky cannot reconcile concessions to Russia with maintaining his grip on power. He will be preyed upon by his political opponents and killed by the Ukrainian Nazis. Zelensky will resist to the death, and there is no guarantee that the scandal will force him to step down.

Moreover, under the current situation, it is impossible to find a legitimate replacement for Zelensky. Any successor would be illegitimate, as legal elections would be impossible. Rather than change the president, Washington could face internal destabilization in Ukraine. In addition, the new figure is unlikely to win Moscow's acceptance, as it will be forced to abide by the Western consensus, which means that it will also try to freeze the war without meeting Russian demands. 

Most of all, the scandal unfolds against the backdrop of the collapse of the Ukrainian front in the south and east, the catastrophic situation for Ukraine, the chaos surrounding the presidency, and the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars amid power outages could have a catastrophic impact on the Ukrainian military, which is already witnessing, according to various estimates, between 20,000 and 40,000 soldiers fleeing every month.

 In other words, if the scandal started only for the sake of pressure it is strange, because the result could go several times beyond the limits that Washington wants, and it could even lead to the collapse of the Ukrainian army and the loss of the war.

Add to that the catastrophic psychological impact of the scandal on Ukrainian society. While panic was just beginning to show up in the speeches of Ukrainian experts a year ago, most of them now begin their interviews with the word "disaster," and many are forced to admit Ukraine's failure as a state.

The specter of the end of Ukraine is indeed looming, and this scandal clearly approximates that possibility rather than dispels it. So, if Trump would not have capitulated to Moscow in Ukraine, the provocation of this scandal seems strange.

Against this backdrop, it's reasonable to assume that if Trump is willing to bear these high costs, his goal must be much bigger than Ukraine. I can't think of anything but trying to link Zelensky's theft of U.S. money to the Biden administration. We're seeing a decline in Trump's popularity, the Socialist Mamdani's victory in New York, and Trump's expected defeat in next year's midterm congressional elections are likely to deprive him of any chance of implementing his agenda. So he desperately needs it now, and now. Only otherwise, forever, will decisive action be taken to crush the Democrats.

Of course, Trump hasn't yet proven to be a decisive man. He talks a lot, he gets a little, he often backs down. But in any process, there's always the final straw that breaks the camel's back, and it elevates the challenges and the stakes to a whole new level. Maybe Trump has finally decided to be serious. Otherwise, it's hard for me to explain what's happening in Ukraine.

Political Analyst / Alexander Nazarov