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Ukraine’s anti-corruption authorities on Wednesday raided the home of a senior aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as a lawmaker and a bank executive as part of a probe into an alleged criminal group.
The searches came at a vulnerable time for Zelenskyy, whose administration has been plagued by corruption scandals.
The night before the raid, ousted defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov had launched a blistering broadside against him, warning that rampant graft was undermining the country’s fight against Russia and calling for extraordinary wartime elections.
Law enforcement has added to the pressure by searching the house of close Zelenskyy ally Iryna Mudra, who has served as a deputy head of the presidential administration focused on the judiciary system since March 2024, officials told the FT.
The raids targeted “a criminal organisation that operated under the leadership of current and former Ukrainian MPs, with the participation of high-ranking officials of the Office of the President”, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (Nabu) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (Sapo) said in a statement.
Officials involved told the FT the searches also targeted justice ministry officials and representatives of Sense Bank, formerly Alfa-Bank. The state-owned bank is one of Ukraine’s largest financial institutions, employing some 4,000 people.
They also searched the home of Vadim Stolar, a member of parliament who previously served for a pro-Russian party that was banned after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, the officials said.
Mudra, the president’s office and Sense Bank did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Stolar confirmed the searches of his property in a post on Facebook, saying he was co-operating with investigators. Nabu said that further details would be provided later.
Nabu dubbed the case “Operation Forrest Gump”, publishing a cryptic 47-second video in the style of a Hollywood trailer that features a partial recording of an unknown man saying, “Only a moron would go and register the theft of money and payment for their kids’ education in the kids’ own names. That’s why it’s Forrest Gump.”
The agency, which often publishes slickly produced videos to accompany its operations, did not elaborate on its meaning.
A series of Nabu and Sapo operations over the past year have targeted senior Ukrainian officials and the president’s inner circle.
The swelling cases against several close Zelenskyy allies have contributed to a fall in his approval rating and sparked concern among western partners who have provided billions to keep the country afloat and support its military.
The anti-corruption agencies charged Zelenskyy’s powerful former chief of staff Andriy Yermak in May with illicit enrichment and abuse of power. They also charged a former deputy prime minister close to Zelenskyy and the president’s former business partner in the case. Several lawmakers from the president’s ruling party were also accused of taking cash in exchange for parliamentary votes. All those charged have denied wrongdoing.
In early August, Ukraine’s ambassador to the US resigned and was charged with illegal enrichment by Nabu and Sapo two days later. She denies the charge.
The raids are likely to deepen the political crisis enveloping Zelenskyy and rippling through his government after the president fired his former ally Fedorov in a shock overhaul that sparked rare protests in Kyiv and across the country.
In an explosive nine-minute video late on Tuesday, Fedorov accused Zelenskyy — whose 2019 election he helped mastermind — of systemic failures and abusing martial law powers granted at the start of Russia’s war.
“Corruption in wartime is not merely a financial issue. It is a matter of our capability to survive and win,” he said against the backdrop of dramatic music.
Federov said Kyiv could not allow Moscow to determine when Ukrainians can go to the polls.
“We must not let [Russian President Vladimir] Putin decide when Ukrainians can choose their government,” Fedorov said. “Ukrainian democracy must not depend on the goodwill of the Kremlin.”
The unfolding feud risks undermining the war effort, according to Olha Aivazovska, chair of Kyiv-based think-tank OPORA.
“The political crisis is obvious, and unless a compromise is sought, all sides will move towards escalation,” she wrote on social media. “For some reason, the current leaders continue to operate in a peacetime political mode, without even fully imagining the cost of their mistakes.”
