Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is facing the most serious crisis of his tenure as head of the war-torn country and could soon find himself engulfed in a major corruption scandal involving his associates.
Last week, two senior Ukrainian officials resigned amid a raging firestorm over an alleged $100 million kickback scheme involving Energoatom, the country’s state-owned nuclear power company, after Zelenskyy asked them to step down.
In a Wednesday post to X, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko announced the resignations of Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk and Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko and that top officials at Energoatom have been suspended as a result of the corruption probe by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) dubbed “Operation Midas.”
Fox is hitting Zelensky with a golden toilet. The Narrative has changed. https://t.co/8Bmo5wUCO1 pic.twitter.com/yb7vJs8bJo
— Kirill Dmitriev (@kadmitriev) November 17, 2025
The prime minister also said that “the cabinet had also submitted proposals to apply personal sanctions against Timur Mindich, a former business partner of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and businessman Alexander Tsukerman,” according to Fox News.
The New York Times reported that “Mindich, who is an owner of a comedic television studio founded by Mr. Zelensky, fled Ukraine in the predawn hours of Monday before a search of his home.”
When investigators searched his apartment, they discovered a gold-plated toilet in one of the bathrooms and bags of cash, according to the Financial Times.
“Tymur had an apartment with golden toilets that was in the same building as Zelenskyy’s, and in 2021 Zelenskyy celebrated his birthday in Tymur’s apartment,” they said, according to Fox News.
I can think of no better metaphor for $1.2 billion a month in USAID money sent to Ukraine than an oligarch fleeing from embezzlement charges leaving behind a Golden Toilet. https://t.co/SOdgjGY95J
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) November 11, 2025
“Ukrainians don’t have any motivation to fight now because of enormous human rights violations and also because of this corruption now exposed,” an unnamed former official told Fox News Digital. “People inside the country are already seeing this corruption, and this is just part of the corrupt swamp. Zelenskyy is part of the problem.”
“This money laundering appeared to have been going on since 2022, and there were a lot of people who tried to stop this,” the anonymous former official said.”Some say Zelenskyy was aware of these schemes and that he had approved them.”
“There was also suspicion that money ended up in accounts abroad that benefited Zelenskyy and his inner circle,” they said, according to Fox News Digital.
Oleksiy Chernyshov, a former deputy prime minister, is also under investigation.
“He was also very close to the family, and he used to hold positions in the Zelenskyy government since 2019, and he has been accused of abuse of office,” the former official said.
“We must act quickly and decisively on the battlefield and act equally in vital areas within the state. The government’s task is to show Ukrainian society and partners that under no circumstances will we tolerate corruption and will respond quickly to any facts,” Svyrydenko told Politico.
“Is it possible to become president and not steal?” the former comedian once joked, according to the New York Times. “It’s a rhetorical question, as no one has tried so far.”
“Zelenskyy is using his extraordinary PR talent and will not step down in this probe,” the former official told Fox News Digital.
“Zelenskyy is not the kind of person who feels shame even if there’s a corruption probe… Zelenskyy has got everything from this war. He had a vertical of power, an unbreakable image, all the attention of the media. To some, he really depends on this and money,” the anonymous official added.
The diminutive leader was hailed as the savior of Western democracy by politicians and the media during the onset of the war with neighboring Russia, only to see his favorable status take a major hit when President Donald J. Trump took office, who is determined to end the carnage that many have profited from.
Zelenskyy now finds himself at the center of a maelstrom of corruption that could suck him down the golden toilet.
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