Volodymyr Zelensky stood proudly on the steps of 10 Downing Street this week, flanked by Sir Keir Starmer and the leaders of France and Germany, ready to discuss Europe’s latest package of support for Ukraine’s ongoing war effort. Though the conflict has, as of this week, lasted longer that the first world war, Zelensky is in some ways in the most heroic period of his presidency. Ukraine not only continues to stand firm against intense Russian assaults but also seems to be regaining a strategic advantage with its long-range drone strikes. Europe has stepped up to replace US funding and diplomacy and the fall of Hungary’s Viktor Orban has unlocked a €90 billion loan package.

Yet it is also the most sordid period of Zelensky’s presidency. Ukraine’s independent anti-corruption agency, Nabu, has revealed evidence of shocking, large-scale war-profiteering in Zelensky’s inner circle. In April it was reported that Nabu had intercepted evidence that came uncomfortably close to linking Zelensky himself to a luxury villa built with the proceeds of embezzlement. Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s long-time business partner and latterly his all-powerful chief of staff, has been formally arrested (he says the charges are ‘unfounded’). Several key former Zelensky business partners, as well as prominent members of his Servant of the People party, have escaped corruption charges by fleeing abroad, leading to accusations that they were tipped off by powerful friends.

Polls show Ukrainians’ deep distrust of the government. In a survey last month by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology – Ukraine’s most reputable polling organisation – 54 per cent named corruption in state authorities as the greatest threat to the development of Ukraine, while only 39 per cent named Russian military aggression. Fifty-nine per cent believed that Zelensky was personally responsible for corruption. And that was before the latest revelations about four luxury villas near Kyiv built using allegedly stolen money by Timur Mindich – a business partner of Zelensky’s wanted for involvement in a $100 million embezzlement scheme that skimmed money off funds intended to fortify energy infrastructure against Russian attack. According to conversations recorded by Nabu, one villa was for Mindich himself, another for Yermak, the third for the former deputy prime minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, while the fourth appears to have been for someone whom Mindich refers to as ‘Vova’, short for Volodymyr, who ‘spoke with him before Shabbat’. The investigation continues (Zelensky is not a subject of it).

As corruption scandals rage in Kyiv, new-generation drones are changing the strategic shape of the war

As corruption scandals rage in Kyiv, new-generation drones are changing the strategic shape of the........

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