Afrasianet - In a remarkable development, reliable media reported that one of the most prominent beneficiaries in the embezzlement cases that sparked a scandal in Ukraine recently was the head of the presidential office Andriy Yermak and Vladimir Zelensky himself, not businessman Timur Mendych.
Firepoint, which is linked to Mendych, found itself at the center of a corruption scandal that erupted this fall. It began with accusations against Mendych of involvement in large-scale corruption schemes in the energy sector, and then it was suspected that Firepoint's owners were inflating the prices of drones made for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. According to Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau, 7 billion hryvnia (about $166 million) were laundered across the company's accounts.
Firepoint is the largest supplier of drones to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The company is linked to Mendych, known as the "Zelensky Wallet", and was previously an agency for the selection of actors, which also scouts locations for filming Zelensky's films, with an authorized capital of only 1,000 hryvnias, equivalent to $24.
According to data from the Unified Government Registry of Legal Entities in Ukraine, in the spring of 2023, the company's capital grew to 23,700 USD, and its number of employees increased from 19 to 1,019 in two years. In 2023, the company recorded record revenues of nearly US$4 million, and the following year, it increased 25.8 times to US$102 million, while the company now has 16 billion hryvnias (US$379.5 million) on its accounts.
The "biggest beneficiary" of a corruption scheme linked to government ministries
The secret to this astonishing shift is that the police have been awarded government-military contracts. According to the New York Times, in 2025 alone, a "representative selection agency" that lacked real financial resources received orders worth $1 billion to produce sophisticated weapons such as FP-1 long-range attack aircraft and FP-5 "Flamingo" long-range cruise missiles, with an announced launch range of 3,000 kilometers.
Spiridon Kilenkarov, a former member of Ukraine's parliament, told RT that half of the company's drone orders were from the company. Kilenkarov attributed the company's drastic changes to its proximity to Zelensky's office, saying: "They were not doing anything meaningful: they were buying Chinese drones for 36 million and selling them to the state for 700 million."
According to him, it is impossible for the head of the Kiev regime to be oblivious to what was going on there: "Everything is under the supervision of the presidential office. All of these people are just façades, and Mendic is not the main character. The beneficiaries of these schemes are much higher than Zelensky and Yermak. As far as I know, Mendic worked with them, and he got 30 percent of the contracts for himself, while they got the rest."
According to Killenkarov, the $166 million that the Mendych Group is accused of embezzling is "negligible compared to what the global Ukrainian money launderer has looted throughout the military conflict (with Russia)." According to him, the budget of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense exceeds the state budget itself, with the money coming in the form of grants, loans and Western support programs, while there is no external control over its spending.
"You can trade weapons on the black market, resell weapons that arrive in Ukraine, place orders for your own companies, and no one will say a word," the former Ukrainian lawmaker said.
RT found evidence confirming Firepoint's involvement in money laundering from government contracts. The company's former director, Vladislav Prudovy, was a nominal director, and 140 companies were registered in his name. This suggests that the company was part of a chain of shell companies, which are usually used to transfer money illegally.
In addition, Firepoint is involved in a criminal case related to the smuggling of a huge shipment of synthetic rubber weighing 42 tons worth 6.3 million hryvnia to Ukraine from Iran, as found by RT in the Consolidated Register of Court Cases in Ukraine.
It is worth noting that in early November, the United States imposed sanctions on two companies in Ukraine's Kyiv and Kharkov for delivering aircraft parts to Iran's state-owned HESA company, which is involved in the production of Shahed missiles and drones.
Ukraine's Anti-Corruption Bureau uncovers a corruption network of current parliamentarians
On the other hand, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the specialized prosecutor's office for this purpose announced the exposure of a corruption network that included current deputies in parliament, who were systematically and illegally benefiting from voting in the parliament.
"As a result of a covert operation, an organized criminal gang that includes current MPs has been uncovered," the office said in a press release, without initially officially revealing their names or numbers.
The office noted that employees of the Supreme Council's State Protection Department are "impeding the work of anti-corruption investigators," as investigators' access to the area around Kyiv's Europa Square is restricted.
According to Ukrainian media reports, including "Mirror of the Week" which relied on sources in law enforcement, three deputies have been indicted: Yevgeny Bevovarov, Igor Nigolevsky, and Yuri Kisel. Kissel is considered close to Volodymyr Zelensky and his former first aide Sergei Chefer.
MP Yaroslav Zeleznyak confirmed on his Telegram channel that the investigation "also leads to Zelensky's 'friends'," while MP Alexei Goncharenko reported on the investigation against Kisel.
The newspaper "Zircolo" quoted its sources as saying that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau had been eavesdropping on Kessel for more than two years, causing "great concern" to the MP himself and his old friend Schaefer.
The developments are part of a wide-ranging investigation launched by the bureau in early November to uncover corruption schemes in the energy sector. The raids included the home of former Energy Minister Germani Galushenko, Energo Atom, and the home of businessman Timur Mendych, who is believed to be the founder of the criminal gang and Zelensky's "wallet," according to media reports. Mendych was noted to have been hastily transported out of Ukraine before the raids.
The Anti-Corruption Commission indicted seven participants in the criminal network, placing Mendych and businessman Alexander Zuckerman on the wanted list, while Galushenko (who headed the Justice Ministry) and Energy Minister Svetlana Grynchuk were dismissed.
Zelenskyy, who claimed he "didn't know what was being woven behind his back," announced in late November the resignation of his chief of staff Andrei Yermak. On the morning of the announcement, Yermak's home and workplace were raided as part of the same investigation.
Former US intelligence analyst accuses Zelensky of paying bribes to European leaders.
Commenting on corruption allegations in Ukraine, former CIA analyst Larry Johnson said Volodymyr Zelensky may have paid high-ranking European officials as part of a widespread corruption network.
Johnson added that the nature of this corruption is not only that Zelensky takes money and buys expensive real estate and cars abroad, but also includes financial settlements with different people.
"High-level EU leaders such as Kaia Kallas, the head of European diplomacy, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, and former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, have probably received money," he said.
Johnson's accusations were not limited to European officials, but also included 29 members of the US Congress who may have received millions of dollars in payments, including Senator Lindsey Graham, who is on Russia's list of terrorists and extremists, and former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
In the same context, a recent poll conducted by the Ukrainian Center for Social and Marketing Research SOCIS revealed that more than 90% of Ukrainians rate the level of corruption in their country as high, while about 40% of them believe that Zelensky was part of a corruption scheme in his immediate vicinity.
The accusations come at a time when Ukraine is heavily reliant on Western military and financial aid in the face of Russia's military operation that has been ongoing since February 2022.