Kyiv, Ukraine – A corruption scandal that involves President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s business partner, political allies, and a cast of presumed wrongdoers who profited from a nuclear power monopoly has roiled energy-starved Ukraine.Observers told Al Jazeera that the scandal may ruin Zelenskyy’s approval ratings, enrage Western donors and cause a political crisis that could lead to battlefield losses.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list“What’s actually happening is the marauding of a state-owned company during the war, and that’s very painful for the people,” Tetiana Shevchenko of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, a group in Kyiv, told Al Jazeera.Timur Mindich, who co-owned the District 95 comic troupe that propelled Zelenskyy to stardom and a subsequent presidency, is the presumed mastermind of the corruption scheme around contracts with Energoatom, the state-run consortium that manages Ukraine’s nuclear power stations, according to two anticorruption agencies.Russian missiles and drones keep destroying Ukraine’s energy generation and distribution infrastructure, and nuclear power stations have become the nation’s main source of electricity.Mindich, 46, fled Ukraine hours before investigators knocked on the door of his luxurious apartment in central Kyiv on Monday. He has reportedly travelled to Israel.“Catching businessman Timur Mindich was almost impossible; his flight is not a surprise,” a law enforcement source told the NV.ua broadcaster.A day later, two independent corruption watchdogs charged Mindich and seven more people with bribery, abuse of office and illegal enrichment from kickbacks of up to 15 percent from contracts with Energoatom that amounted to about $100m. Advertisement The agencies, Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and th …
