Ukraine:
A Corrupt Regime from Top to Bottom

Nov 24, 2025

This article is translated from the November 14 issue, #2989 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the paper of the revolutionary workers group of that name active in France.

Editor’s Note: As of this publication date, the Trump administration is pushing Ukraine to accept what he calls a 28-point plan to end the war with Russia. It is not clear whether this plan would lead to a ceasefire, or if it would fall apart and be quickly forgotten. What is clear, however, is that Trump’s plan has nothing to do with peace. Instead, it is an ultimatum to Ukraine to end the war on U.S. terms. Demonstrating what was obvious—that the Ukraine war was the U.S.’s war from the beginning.

A major corruption case in Ukraine hit the headlines. According to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), it involved the activities of a “high-level criminal organization” in the immediate circle of President Volodymyr Zelensky. The criminals extorted money from the energy production sector. Remember Zelensky made his name as an anti-corruption candidate.

This scandal couldn’t have come at a worse time for the government. With Russian bombings systematically targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, every year on the eve of winter its major cities lack electricity and heat.

NABU investigated the case for 15 months and conducted 70 raids on the homes of prominent figures and the headquarters of corrupt institutions involved in the money laundering network. Among those investigated were four ministers, including the minister of Justice and former minister of Energy, Herman Halushchenko; state-owned company Energoatom, whose contractors were systematically required to pay 10 to 15% bribes; Timur Mindich, a businessman very close to Zelensky; and Mindich’s two deputies in charge of his financial operations, both legal and illegal.

NABU and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) warned the trio before the sting. They were able to flee abroad a few hours before the raids. Minditch is not just anyone. He is a very close collaborator and associate of Zelensky. Co-owner of their film production company Kvartal 95, he experienced a meteoric rise in the business world after Zelensky’s election to the presidency in 2019. He used his influence in the government to expand his activities, particularly in the energy, media, and especially defense sectors. He secretly controlled Fire Point, the company which became Ukraine’s leading supplier of drones.

Last summer, NABU indicted former deputy prime minister and Zelensky family friend Oleksiy Chernyshov for abusing his power and accepting bribes. NABU also raided the Berlin home of Zelensky’s former economic advisor. Zelensky rammed through a law placing NABU and SAP under the direct authority of the prosecutor general, who is appointed by him. Ukraine’s legislature, the Verkhovna Rada, voted unanimously for the law, which Zelensky signed that very night. Legislators had every interest in curbing these dangerously independent bodies, even though these inspectors had never shown any zeal in fighting corruption before.

But the cover-up did not go as planned. Some students and urban lower-middle-class people—until then, pillars of the regime—took to the streets to voice their outrage at a law which so shamelessly aimed at ensuring impunity for traffickers and corrupt officials at the top.

Zelensky was threatened with a serious political crisis and the loss of further support. More and more Ukrainians expressed their weariness with the endless war. At the same time, he was also threatened with the withdrawal of some of his Western European backers’ aid given his overly open tolerance of corruption. He was forced to back down. He compelled reluctant lawmakers to restore NABU and SAP’s independence.

This didn’t solve much. Investigations can’t eradicate a problem that predates Zelensky’s election. This kind of widespread corruption is not even unique to Ukraine. This mode of operation by ruling “elites” and by the entire state apparatus in most of the states that emerged from the dissolution of the USSR is reminiscent of the way in which the bureaucracies of Stalin and later Brezhnev thrived by leeching off the Soviet economy.

NABU and SAP couldn’t change this situation, even if they wanted to. At most, some politicians can take advantage of the scandalous situation and power struggles to exert pressure on Zelensky, or to prepare for a post-Zelensky era in the framework of an eventual ceasefire. Western European leaders repeat that Ukraine must fight corruption to join the European Union.

Legislator Oleksi Hontcharenko commented, “Everyone knows how much it costs to get off the bus” [i.e., where men rounded up in the street are herded to be sent to military assembly center CTR.] He added, “It ranges from $1,000 to $8,000. Once inside CTR, it’s $8,000 to $15,000 to be released.” In other words, everyone knows how much it costs to bribe recruiting sergeants.

Getting a medical exemption from military service costs at least $20,000. Legal leave to move to another country and avoid risking life in combat costs even more. These figures are beyond the reach of most salaried workers. But they are tiny compared to the colossal fortunes amassed by men in the upper echelons of the Ukrainian government. Military contracts are the jackpot. These same men increase penalties for men who refuse conscription. They debate in the legislature over ordering up women to replace soldiers killed in action. All this in the name of “defending the homeland,” of course—at the expense of ordinary people. Meanwhile these corrupt politicians and insatiable oligarchs stay far behind the lines, or even abroad.

Ukrainian leaders and oligarchs chorus, “Defend us from the Russians.” The population may well ask, “Who will defend us from these pests?”