KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sacked his justice and energy ministers on Wednesday over a sweeping corruption scandal in the country’s war-battered energy sector.

Investigators have alleged a key Zelensky ally orchestrated a $100 million kickback scheme to siphon funds, triggering public anger at a time of widespread power outages caused by Russian attacks.

Ukraine has long been plagued by corruption and cracking down on graft is seen as a key requirement of its bid to join the European Union.

Zelensky said his Justice Minister German Galushchenko, who investigators say was involved in the scheme and received “personal benefits”, as well as Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk should tender their resignations.

“The minister of justice and the minister of energy cannot remain in their positions,” Zelensky said in a video posted on social media.

It is “absolutely unacceptable that there are still some (corruption) schemes in the energy sector” while Ukrainians are facing daily outages from Russian attacks, he added.

The government had earlier suspended Galushchenko, who was energy minister until earlier this year, but he is not yet known to have been charged.

Grynchuk, who took over the energy ministry in July, said earlier that Energoatom, the state nuclear operator at the centre of the investigation, was cooperating with the investigators.

In court on Tuesday, an anti-corruption prosecutor said Timur Mindich, a close ally of President Zelensky, had masterminded the scheme.

Mindich co-owns the production company Kvartal 95, founded by Zelensky, who was a star comedian before running for office.

Zelensky has yet to comment on Mindich, who fled the country shortly before the allegations were announced on Monday.

His production company said the probe was not “related to the work of the studio”. Ukraine’s prime minister said Kyiv was imposing personal sanctions on Mindich and Oleksandr Tsukerman, another businessman charged in the scheme.

Major test

The corruption scandal and mounting accusations that the Ukrainian presidency is using the judiciary to intimidate and silence critics presents a significant test for Volodymyr Zelensky almost four years into the Russian invasion.

These challenges come at a critical time for Zelensky, who has remained popular and largely unchallenged since Russia invaded in 2022.

It also shows how strained the tightrope that Ukraine has been forced to walk, between centralising power to run the war and forging on with democratic reforms key to joining the EU, is becoming.

The latest case to trigger accusations that Zelensky’s team is weaponising the judicial system to intimidate critics was last mont’s arrest of Volodymyr Kudrytsky, who led national energy company Ukrenergo until last year, on embezzlement accusations.

Kudrytsky and his backers reject the claims as retribution for criticising Ukraine’s strategy to defend the energy grid from Russian attacks.

“It’s purely political. It couldn’t happen without the involvement of the presidential office,” Kudrytsky, currently on bail, said. “I am being lined up as a scapegoat.”

The authorities want to “demonstrate what will happen if you comment on sensitive matters”, he added, pointing to his strained ties with the country’s leadership.

Kudrytsky has won some high-profile supporters.

Business ombudsman Roman Waschuk said the evidence “appears quite flimsy” and warned against “targeting people for simply performing their normal corporate functions”.

Opposition lawmaker Inna Sovsun said it was part of a strategy of using criminal investigations to silence people.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2025