Overview
- Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said Herman Halushchenko was removed from duties and his portfolio handed to deputy minister Liudmyla Suhak pending the investigation.
- NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office reported more than 70 searches, five detentions and seven formal suspicions, plus roughly 1,000 hours of recorded conversations.
- Investigators describe a 10–15% “gatekeeper” kickback model leveraging a court debt moratorium on Energoatom, with cash transfers documented at $1.2 million and nearly €100,000 and laundering through a Kyiv office and offshore channels.
- Prosecutors named businessman Tymur Mindych as an organizer influencing energy and defense decisions; he was not detained and is reported to be abroad, while ex-defense minister Rustem Umerov rejected claims of improper influence and said a flawed body‑armor contract was canceled.
- At a custody hearing, ex‑adviser Ihor Mironiuk was accused of destroying documents and throwing a phone from a window, as political pressure grew in parliament for broader dismissals and international commentary, including Bloomberg and the Kremlin, raised concerns about donor funds.