A woman holds a sign saying 'Corruption Applauds' at a protest against a new law targeting Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies on July 22 in Kyiv. Photo / Ed Ram, for The Washington Post
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is facing a stunning challenge to his presidency as major corruption allegations rock the wartime leader’s innermost circle just as Washington ramps up pressure for him to agree to an unfavourable peace deal.
The corruption scandal has fuelled rage that the country’s ruling elite may have lined their own pockets as they sent troops to die in the name of democracy and Western values - compounding pressure on Zelenskyy, who risks losing the trust of his country even as he negotiates for its future on the world stage.
Zelenskyy is left with few options to regain that trust, lawmakers and analysts say, unless he overhauls the system that allowed such corruption to persist unchecked and restores power to a parliament his administration has sidelined.
And the timing could hardly be worse.
Ukraine’s anti-corruption watchdog, Nabu, published extensive evidence of officials’ involvement in a major kickback scheme that siphoned money from the crucial energy and defence sectors this month.
It was released as weather turned cold and Ukrainians, worn down by years of war, are either fighting on a brutal front line or living in near-total darkness because of relentless attacks on the energy grid.
The scandal has cast a palpable sense of gloom over the country as many people go half the day or more without electricity, then sleep in train stations and basements to take cover from Russian bombs at night.
The outrage has revealed the limits of what was until now a general wartime understanding even among political opponents that the country must remain united to beat Russia.
That view has been usurped by the disbelief that a small pool of powerful people have profited from a war that is killing so many of their fellow citizens.
“People take it very personally and are genuinely furious. When they try to make it every single day, any corruption in energy and defence is blowing their minds,” said Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, an opposition lawmaker who chairs the parliamentary committee on European Union integration.
“My feeling is that the society is desperately seeking justice, while [the presidential office] is living in a parallel reality.”
As the domestic crisis unfolds, the White House is pushing Kyiv to sign on to its new proposal or lose all United States support for the country.
A draft of the plan shows it would force Ukraine to make major concessions long seen as unacceptable to the country, including ceding territory to Russians and significantly reducing the size of the Ukrainian Army.
That risks imperilling Ukraine’s troops, who rely deeply on American intelligence-sharing and crucial deals to purchase US weapons.
There are fears in Ukraine that the corruption allegations, which are expected to soon expand to include more top officials close to Zelenskyy, could weaken his already difficult position at the bargaining table - although any deal to end the war would also require parliamentary approval.
Zelenskyy is very aware that he cannot force the country into an unfair or unpopular deal, further tying his hands as Washington pressures him towards an agreement.
The sheer misery Ukrainians are living through, observers say, has only reinforced the view that they will not bow to US demands to accept a deal if it risks exactly what they are fighting for: their independence.
Zelenskyy has tried to minimise attention on the corruption scandal - which has so far directly implicated eight people, including former vice prime minister Oleksandr Chernyshov and Zelenskyy’s former business partner, Timur Mindich, who fled to Israel just before his home was searched last week. Two Cabinet ministers have also resigned at the President’s request.
Calls are growing for Zelenskyy, who has not been accused of personal participation in the scheme, to go much further and overhaul his entire current government, which critics say was built in part by those influenced by or directly involved in corruption.
Lawmakers are calling for a broad new coalition government that would restore power to parliament, allowing a multiparty approach as the country approaches the end of its fourth year of full-scale war and elections remain unlikely.
Allies in his Zelenskyy’s own party have also united to publicly urge him for the first time to fire his closest aide and confidant, Andriy Yermak, a deeply unpopular figure who heads the presidential office and is suspected of ties to the scheme despite not having officially been accused.
Corruption aside, many see Yermak - who is unelected and an old friend of Zelenskyy’s - as responsible for dangerously consolidating power in the presidential office, effectively neutralising the once-powerful parliament and controlling most aspects of Ukraine’s political and security sphere.
That the latest investigation was carried out by an anti-corruption agency that was nearly neutered mid-year after Zelenskyy signed a Bill to greatly restrict its independence, stirred suspicions in the general public that top leaders had intended to protect themselves by disrupting this very probe.
Zelenskyy reversed his decision to restrict the country’s anti-corruption bodies after massive street protests in July.
For now he is holding firm against calls to expand his dismissals in response to the latest investigation. That Yermak has not yet been officially named in the scandal has helped insulate him from such a drastic decision, lawmakers said.
Still, Nabu has hinted that more suspects in the case will emerge.
In a meeting with lawmakers from his party on Friday, Zelenskyy - fresh out of peace plan talks with US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll - did not agree to fire Yermak, even as his own party told him it would signal goodwill towards corruption investigations and help keep the country unified and trustful of his leadership at a critical moment in the war.
“We need a cleaning of government and system changes,” said opposition lawmaker Volodymyr Ariev. “And Yermak must be a part of it.”
Zelenskyy must present a plan to lawmakers and the public on how to move forward from the corruption scandal without further dividing the country, said Oleksandr Merezhko, a lawmaker from Zelenskyy’s party who attended the meeting.
If he takes action to weed out corrupt officials from his circle of influence, he said, parliament is prepared to rally around him as they did after his disastrous trip to the Oval Office, when he was criticised by US President Donald Trump and Vice-President JD Vance.
But “there is a risk of what awaits us since Nabu will be releasing new parts of this scandal and we should be prepared for this. This coming month might be a make-or-break period for us.”
If Zelenskyy wants to survive the crisis and regain the trust of the country, where a broad consensus remains that there should not be elections during wartime, then he must “show that something has been resolved, that the Government has been rebooted without elections”, said Mykola Davydiuk, a Ukrainian political analyst.
And he also must not try to shoo away the corruption crisis that has entangled so many figures close to him.
“The public wants one thing: punishment,” Davydiuk said. “People want to see real punishment, because corruption during wartime is the worst possible evil.”
While some public figures have seen the investigation as a moment speak out against the presidential office publicly and call for Yermak’s resignation, others said they still feared retaliation for doing so.
One lawmaker said the presidential office has promoted consolidating power as a necessary measure “to speak in one voice, and create one organism to resist the invasion”, when it had instead allowed leaders close to Zelenskyy “to make profit out of this country”.
The lawmaker so feared being overheard discussing the sensitive corruption case that they removed their smartwatch before speaking to the Washington Post, to avoid eavesdropping.
Stealing from the defence and energy sectors “is doing everything they can to help Russia”, the lawmaker said. Zelenskyy would be best off restoring power to parliament and taking on a role more akin “to a British queen”.
Even as lawmakers close to Zelenskyy keep urging him to dismiss Yermak as soon as possible, some warned that an abrupt firing would not reshape the broader picture that led to this crisis.
“Its actual impact depends on what follows: if it’s just swapping one figurehead for another, nothing changes for the war or governance,” said Victoria Voytsitska, a civil society activist and former lawmaker.
“If it triggers a genuine reset of how decisions are made, it could stabilise trust and strengthen Ukraine’s wartime management.”
Zelenskyy understands that the steps he has taken so far are “nowhere near enough”, said Olena Tregub, secretary general of the independent anti-corruption commission Nako.
“The only way for him to preserve legitimacy and remain in office is to decisively remove everyone on his team who appears to be implicated in this corruption case.
“This is no longer an issue of internal politics,” she said. “It is a question of the survival of the Ukrainian state.”
- Lizzie Johnson contributed to this report from Kyiv.
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