Prosecutor’s probe possible leak as Zelensky ally reportedly flees Prior to Searches.

Oleksandr Klymenko, Ukraine’s Chief Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, has initiated an internal probe into a possible leak of information, the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) said on November 10th. The probe follows reports that President Volodymyr Zelensky’s former business partner Timur Mindich was tipped off about possible searches and was able to leave the country beforehand.

The leaks occurred in the past two weeks; a law enforcement source told the media. The Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office told the media personnel that it could not provide any comments at this time.

Timur Mindich, a co-owner of the President’s Kvartal 95 production company, has expanded his business interests in recent years, according to journalist investigations. An investigation into Mindich’s activities by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) was one of the factors that led to an attempt by the authorities to eliminate the NABU’s independence in July, law enforcement sources told Media personnel. The NABU has said on November 10th that it was investigating a major corruption scheme in the energy sector, including Ukraine’s state Nuclear Power Company Energoatom.

As part of the investigation, the NABU conducted searches in Kyiv the same day in premises connected to Mindich, law enforcement sources apprised the Media. On 10th November, online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda published video footage of Andriy Synyuk, the deputy head of the SAPO, meeting with Oleksiy Meniv, a lawyer who visited Mindich’s apartment building in the same period. According to the news outlet’s sources, Synyuk had access to the Mindich case.

Synyuk has denied leaking any information in the Mindich case and said he was friends with Meniv. Synyuk also said that Meniv’s former wife and children live in the same house as Mindich. It is mention worthy that Synyuk was the runner-up in the contest for the job of chief anti-corruption prosecutor in 2021. He eventually lost the race to Klymenko.

Anti-corruption activists questioned his independence at that time since he was a subordinate of then Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova. They argued that the President’s Office was pushing for Synyuk to be appointed as the chief anti-corruption prosecutor. Klymenko nominated him as his deputy in 2022, and Synyuk was appointed as deputy head of the SAPO by then Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin, a Zelensky loyalist.

Minditchgate! The story of the same friend of the President – Volodymyr Zelensky.

Timur Mindich is a name that has been frequently heard in political circles for over a year; Telethon – Mindich, Chernyshov – Mindich, Drones – Mindich, Missiles – Mindich, Energy – Mindich, Cabinet – Mindich, and Banks – Mindich.

A man who, from the youngest partner and holder of media assets of oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, could have turned into one of the country’s shadow curators. Of course, this would not have been possible without Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s friend, who in 2019 found himself in the country’s main office on Bankova Street. And also, without Russia’s full-scale invasion, which put democratic processes in Ukraine on hold for an indefinite period, including accountability and transparency of government actions.

Currently, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office are neither confirming nor denying, or, to put it simply, not commenting, on the so called “tapes” of Mindich. So, the local media decided to unveil this friend of the president, whose name has been heard in the media even more often since the beginning of the attack on anti-corruption bodies.

Moreover, according to UP sources in the American establishment, the FBI has recently begun to “look closely” at Timur Mindich’s activities. And a few weeks ago, the lights started to come on again in the same Mindich apartment at 9A, Hrushevskoho Street, where listening devices were found at the end of the summer.

It was Timur Mindich who, at the start of Zelensky’s Presidential term, advised Zelensky to hire Oleksiy Chernyshov to his team: “They asked Timur about him. Timur said he was a good person”. Perhaps this explains the rapid career growth of the “good person” Chernyshov from the head of the Kyiv Regional State Administration in 2019 to the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine in 2024.

As influential parliamentarians have assured, Chernyshov also had considerable Prime Ministerial ambitions. Together with Svyridenko, he was considered for one of the highest positions in the state every time there was talk of replacing Denys Shmyhal. However, these plans were thwarted in June 2025 by suspicions from the NABU and SAPO of abuse of office and obtaining illegal benefits on a particularly large scale.

Interestingly, a year ago, when Mindich’s name began to be heard more and more often in the context of various spheres of state activity, opinions regarding his influence diverged. Politicians have emphasised that there was “somehow too much Mindich” in their lives. At the same time, businessmen often could not believe that a once inconspicuous “assistant” could grow into a player with political and media weight and influence on entire spheres of state life.

In short, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s bill on de-oligarchisation of the 2021 model, almost imperceptibly for the public, Mindich of the 2024 model could well meet the criteria for defining the concept of “oligarch”. Mindich’s name first appeared in the information space in 2019, when at the end of the presidential campaign, candidate for the highest office, Volodymyr Zelensky, began using the businessman’s armoured car.

In the early 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, Mindich ‘s visits to the President’s office thrice were recorded. At that time, a friend of Zelenskyy reported that he had visited the head of the OP and his friend Andriy Yermak: “I came there to help and provide my assistance as a person, as a comrade, as a citizen in connection with the coronavirus. I have experience in organizing the delivery of packages, products, and so on“.

After the full-scale invasion commencing in February 2022, the government quarter was closed for security reasons. Therefore, it became impossible to control whether Mindićh visited the president’s office; the same applies to all celebrations and other contacts. It was during this period, as per reliable sources in political and business circles had asserted, that the “star” of Timur Mindich, a friend of the president who never held any official position but gained influence, rose above Hrushevsky.

It was the year 2024, which became the year of Mindich’s final establishment in Volodymyr Zelensky’s power system, convinces an influential interlocutor of the Ukrainian People’s Party in business circles.

He started to call a lot when he got his people into the Cabinet. Then he actively invited people to his home. He had even suggested topics.

President Zelenskyy no longer had any candidates left for certain positions in his “reserve”. And it was then, in September 2024, that several people associated with the businessman received ministerial portfolios after a partial government reshuffle.

Timur Mindich’s sphere of influence included the then Minister of Energy Herman Galushchenko, the Minister of Ecology Svitlana Grinchuk, and the Minister of Agrarian Policy Vitaliy Koval. It is noteworthy that neither Galushchenko nor Grinchuk disappeared after the next reboot of the Cabinet of Ministers in mid-2025. Grinchuk took Galushchenko’s place, and Galushchenko moved to the Ministry of Justice.

“Right now, in Ukraine, big money is being made in only a few areas: defense (drones), energy, reconstruction, and call centres“, an influential businessman said in anonymity. And, according to numerous UP sources in business, political, and law enforcement circles, Mindich is present in the first two areas.

After all, 2024 became a “breakthrough” for the defense company Fire Point, which began receiving billion-dollar contracts from the state for the production of long-range drones. Last November alone, two contracts worth over 7 billion hryvnias were signed with a company linked to Timur Mindich, according to defence sources. Defence sources in the Ukrainian Defence Ministry claim that the company received not only funding from the Ukrainian state budget, but also funds from Western partners.

in January 2025, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau turned to the State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine with an official request to disclose the movement of funds of the Fire Point company. However, there are still no results. Already after the emergence of information about the company’s possible ties with Mindich and the NABU investigation into possible overpricing of drones or individual components, according to UP sources in the defence sector, the company’s management decided to “play it safe” and sell its stake in Fire Point to a buyer from Saudi Arabia.

Mindich’s influence on the state’s energy sector was further confirmed this summer, when NABU and SAPO detained a relative of businessman Leonid Mindich while trying to leave the country. According to the investigation, in 2021 he took personal control over the procurement of energy equipment at JSC “Kharkivoblenergo” and influenced the procurement of this equipment by other state owned enterprises in the energy sector.

The interlocutors among politicians and businessmen also emphasised that, Mindich could have gained influence in the banking sector, in particular on the state-nationalized “Sens Bank”, through the institution’s management. For example, Mindich began communicating with one of the institution’s non-public curators and advisor to the chairman of the bank’s supervisory board, Vasyl Veselyi. Veselyi’s family, coincidentally or not, in the same year 2024 received a stake in the state’s largest petrochemical enterprise, Karpatneftekhim, from which the arrest had previously been lifted.

Team Maverick