Zelensky’s Image Is Stained as Corruption Inquiry Shakes His Inner Circle

As he considered a run for president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, a former comedian, joked about the country’s rampant high-level corruption.

“Is it possible to become president and not steal?” Mr. Zelensky quipped. “It’s a rhetorical question, as no one has tried so far.”

Mr. Zelensky’s promises to fight corruption propelled him to the presidency in 2019 and underpinned his politics before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. But now a sweeping corruption investigation that has reached his inner circle is threatening his support both at home and abroad, and tarnishing his image as a lionized wartime leader.

Ukrainian investigators say that a criminal organization led by a business partner of Mr. Zelensky siphoned off and then laundered $100 million from the country’s publicly owned nuclear power company and engaged in other fraud and financial crimes.

Two government ministers in the case submitted letters of resignation after Mr. Zelensky asked them to step down, and the prime minister that he appointed has requested that sanctions be imposed on the business partner, Timur Mindich. Investigators say that Mr. 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.

Throughout the week, the independent agency leading the investigation, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, has drip-fed new revelations of corruption by posting recordings from wiretaps online. Its slow unfurling of the case, including slickly produced videos featuring its detectives, has gripped Ukrainians while gradually ratcheting up pressure on Mr. Zelensky without revealing how high the inquiry will reach.

Mr. Zelensky has not been directly implicated. He said in a speech on Wednesday that he supported “every investigation carried out by law enforcement and anticorruption officials.”

But the revelations touch a particular political vulnerability for Mr. Zelensky. This summer, he moved to curtail the independence of the anticorruption investigators as they pursued the case. He reversed course after Ukrainians poured into the streets in the country’s first large protests during the war, saying that Mr. Zelensky was threatening Ukraine’s fragile democracy.

The same company that is trying to keep the lights on as winter approaches is now linked to a scheme to enrich Mr. Mindich, who has been described by the political opposition and the news media as having had broad political influence over Mr. Zelensky.

The revelations are a remarkable reversal for Mr. Zelensky. He had once cultivated an image as a leader who would open up Ukraine’s politics by sweeping away the wealthy insiders known as oligarchs. Now, nearly seven years since the last election, and with a new one nowhere in sight because of the war, many Ukrainians see him as operating within a small, closed circle, unbound by the rules.

“I can only assume he is thinking that he does a lot to fight the Russians, and nobody has a right to say anything to him, even Ukrainian anticorruption institutions,” said Olena Scherban, a lawyer who represents an investigator in the case who was arrested by intelligence officials who report to Mr. Zelensky.

Mr. Zelensky has responded to the revelations by condemning any fraud that might have occurred and calling for the prosecution of those accused of committing crimes. And he has signaled a break in ties with the implicated officials — including Herman Halushchenko, the justice minister, and Svitlana Hrynchuk, the energy minister — as well as with Mr. Mindich.

Mr. Mindich has not publicly commented on the case, and efforts by The New York Times to reach him through Mr. Zelensky’s production studio, Kvartal 95, were unsuccessful.

Ukraine’s main opposition party, European Solidarity, has called for a no-confidence vote on Mr. Zelensky’s cabinet of ministers. The vote’s prospects are unclear as Mr. Zelensky’s party holds a majority in Parliament.

Germany’s foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, speaking at a Group of 7 gathering in Canada this week, called on Ukraine to conduct a “decisive fight against corruption.” While the new accusations have prompted worries that Ukraine’s Western partners might rethink their support, Mr. Wadephul said aid would continue.

At the heart of the case involving the nuclear power company is what the anticorruption agency said was a scheme in which participants took kickbacks of 10 to 15 percent from contractors.

The recordings released by the agency, which present officials and participants casually discussing multimillion-dollar payments, arrived as many Ukrainians were donating small sums to support the army in its fierce, bloody trench fight against Russia’s military.

A payment of $6 million to purchase a property in Switzerland is discussed in one recording. On another, two voices have an exchange about the difficulty of transporting large volumes of cash.

“How do you carry the box?” a voice on the tape asks.

“Oh, it was nothing to carry,” another man answers.

They discuss more than a “million,” though don’t say in which currency. Packing the money in a computer case with handles made it easier to tote, one man says.

Investigators identified the voices by colorful nicknames including Sugarman, Che Guevara and Karlson. Separately, prosecutors implicated Mr. Mindich in court. Ukrainian media outlets have linked Mr. Mindich and one of the ministers who submitted their resignation, Mr. Halushchenko, to voices on the tape. The agency called its investigation, which lasted 15 months, Operation Midas.

The agency said a former deputy prime minister, Oleksiy Chernyshov, who was removed from government in a cabinet shuffle over the summer, had received about $1.43 million in the kickback scheme.

Ukrainska Pravda, a leading Ukrainian newspaper, has reported that the influence of Mr. Mindich as a shadowy backroom operator in politics and business had swelled during the war. Mr. Mindich recommended candidates for cabinet positions, the newspaper said. So great was his perceived sway over Mr. Zelensky that opposition members of Parliament have taken to calling the current government the cabinet of Mindich.

After his election in 2019, Mr. Zelensky initially took steps against Ukraine’s corrupt oligarchs. He appointed a court for high-level cases. An oil and media tycoon seen as aligned with Mr. Zelensky, Ihor Kolomoisky, was jailed for financial fraud.

But in its revelations this week, the anticorruption agency described a scheme for public graft arising under Mr. Zelensky that is so common in former Soviet states that nicknames have emerged for the various roles.

In the scheme, a politically connected figure known as a “watcher” conspires with executives to embezzle profits at state companies. In a statement, the anticorruption agency said a watcher had appeared at the nuclear company in the form of the group led by Mr. Mindich.

As the anticorruption agency closed in, including by arresting a cousin of Mr. Mindich, Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency swung into gear to push back. The intelligence agency is directly subordinate to Mr. Zelensky.

In July, it targeted detectives working on the case with searches and arrests, including a lead investigator, Ruslan Magamedrasulov, according to his lawyer, Ms. Scherban, and outside analysts. The intelligence agency claimed that Russian spies had infiltrated anticorruption investigations.

The next day, Mr. Zelensky’s office pressed Parliament to vote on legislation curtailing the anticorruption agency’s independence, also citing the risk of Russian spies.

Law enforcement officials who reported to Mr. Zelensky followed up by sweeping up others in Ukraine’s anticorruption community. A founder of a leading nongovernmental group and a former director of a state electric company who had spoken out about political pressure on its management were arrested.

Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the former director of the company, Ukrenergo, was arraigned last month on financial crimes charges that he denies. He said in an interview that he had been targeted after speaking out about his refusal to hire managers who might embezzle money, as is alleged to have happened at the nuclear company.

Mr. Zelensky “doesn’t like people who argue with him or have their own ways of doing things,” Mr. Kudrytskyi said.

Oleksandr Chubko and Oleksandra Mykolyshyn contributed reporting.