Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies have raided the home of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s top aide in the country’s largest corruption scandal.
The national Anti-Corruption Bureau confirmed on Friday that it was conducting searches of Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, in a corruption case involving the state nuclear power monopoly Energoatom.
The NABU has conducted a 15-month-long investigation into an alleged kickback scheme involving Energoatom contractors, in which government officials extracted bribes from the company’s contracts, with the kickbacks ranging from 10% and 15% of their worth. NABU alleges that about $100 million was stolen in the scheme.
Zelensky’s ministers for energy and justice have already resigned over the scandal, and more than a dozen other officials have been implicated or detained.
Ukrainian corruption has been a significant obstacle to garnering U.S. support for the war against Russia, particularly for officials in the Trump administration.
The scandal developments come as the U.S. has ramped up pressure on Ukraine to agree to peace terms with Russia. The debacle could further threaten U.S. support for the country’s defense against Russian forces.
Yermak is Zelensky’s chief peace negotiator in the conflict, making his involvement in the scandal another complication in the negotiations.
Ukraine’s energy sector has been the epicenter of the country’s corruption scandals, including Hunter Biden’s involvement with the oil and natural gas company Burisma.
Zelensky said in a statement earlier this month that he supports “every investigation carried out by law enforcement and anti-corruption officials” and said that there must be “maximum integrity in the energy sector.”
“Right now it is extremely difficult for everyone in Ukraine—enduring power outages, Russian strikes, and losses,” Zelensky said earlier this month. “It is absolutely unacceptable that, amid all this, there are also some schemes in the energy sector.”
