Ukraine – energy sector corruption scandal
This week, unfortunately, Ukraine is back in the news in an energy sector corruption scandal, which has led to both the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Energy to resign, as reported by The Washington Post. This comes at a very difficult time as the Ukraine energy sector is being bombarded by the Russians and many cities in Ukraine are without any electricity and in the dark. Additionally, the EU has made anti-corruption the key to accession and have made many investments in the energy sector. This newest scandal is certainly not welcome for the Zelensky government, which is possibly implicated at the highest levels, and as such has been a high visibility case, picked up by most significant media outlets. The corruption scheme involves the state-owned nuclear energy company, Energoatom. The contractors to Energoatom had been forced to pay hefty kickbacks, in the amount of approximately 100 million USD, which has been shared amongst senior governmental officials. This has implicated the Ministers as well as a close colleague of President Zelensky, Tymur Mindich, who is a partner in President Zelensky’s production company Kvartal 95. In a nutshell, this case “is casting an ominous shadow over plans by European nations to send Ukraine a big influx of money and over Kyiv’s bid to join the European Union.” This is also shining a very bright light on President Zelensky’s government and is again raising questions about the senior governmental officials in the Ukrainian government.
Why should we care and what needs to be done? As someone who has worked in Ukraine for many years as well as in the anti-corruption sector, this is one more disheartening case. Most anti-corruption practitioners use words like endemic when discussing the pervasive nature of corruption in Ukraine and as Ukraine continues to fight for its life, it seems that a part of the reality is that while the senior government officials are stealing millions from the Energoatom, the majority of the Ukrainian population is in the cold and the dark. The population of Ukraine deserves so much more from their government officials, and this is a reminder that government officials are not there to enrich themselves but are representatives of the people. This case also highlights the fact that the anti-corruption agencies are doing their jobs, but there needs to be much more targeted monitoring of both the cases that are ongoing, to ensure that the cases don’t simply vanish, as well as much publicity, to shine a very bright light on this case and monitoring of key areas such as energy, defense and health. Donors also must not simply support but must have a more hands-on role in monitoring as well as assessing how their support is being managed, and what types of mechanisms are there to ensure that the money is not being diverted. There needs to be closer support and evaluation of checks at the highest levels of government and if necessary conditionalities need to be explored. At the end of the day, we need to know and we need to protect the Ukrainian populace. Sadly, even President Zelensky can see the issue, as noted in The New York Times , “Is it possible to become president and not steal?” Mr. Zelensky joked. “It’s a rhetorical question, as no one has tried so far.” Let’s hope he tries and succeeds.
Link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/11/14/eu-ukraine-corruption-aid-zelensky/
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/world/europe/zelensky-corruption-investigation.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/13/europe/ukraine-zelensky-energy-corruption-scandal-intl
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/11/11/ukraine-corruption-investigation-energoatom/
https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-updates-kyiv-launches-energy-corruption-probe/live-74689628
https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2025/11/10/massive-corruption-scandal-rocks-ukrainian-energy-sector/