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A second corruption storm in Ukraine, and satanism in its government

By Dmitri Kovalevich | Al Mayadeen | May 30, 2026

This year, May 20 marked seven years since Volodymyr Zelensky came to power in 2019. He and his associates have seized control of the Ukrainian state and canceled further elections required by the Ukrainian constitution.

Seven years ago, Zelensky’s arrival in power followed a corruption scandal that ensnared his predecessor Petro Poroshenko and his inner circle. At the time, Zelensky promised to step down voluntarily if something similar ever happened to him and his inner circle. Poroshenko was elected a mere three months following the violent, paramilitary coup in Kiev. That election featured threats and the banning of candidates and media outlets opposing or even questioning the coup.

Since 2019, corruption scandals have only grown, but Zelensky is showing no intention of ceding to rising calls that he and his regime step down and convene a new, national election. Instead, his regime continues to consolidate its power amid rising opposition to its policies. Above all, they are still waging a proxy war against the Russian Federation, backed by the Western powers.

Western politicians are continuing to turn a blind eye to the regime and its sinking support among the Ukrainian population. They are ignoring the corruption scandals enveloping the regime, including the theft of Western aid (as graciously paid for by Western taxpayers). So long as Zelensky and his regime are at war with Russia, the West will remain content. Zelensky himself understands perfectly well that the war course with Russia is a fight for his political life. If the war ends, he will lose his ‘presidential’ immunity. Zelensky’s electoral mandate expired in April 2024, more than two years ago.

“Why are Europeans silent about the corruption surrounding Andriy Yermak?” asks former legislator of Zelensky’s part/machine Alexander Dubinsky on Telegram on May 17, writing about Zelensky’s former chief of staff. Yermak resigned from his position as the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine after his home was raided by anti-corruption agents on November 28, 2025. In May 2026, Yermak was formally named a suspect in a corruption investigation. He was arrested on May 14 and stayed four days in prison before being released on bail.

“Why the silence over the fact that none of the widespread corruption that Yermak fostered would exist without Zelensky’s usurpation of power? It’s because the regime’s goal is to weaken the Russian Federation, and Zelensky happens to remain the best manager for that.” According to Dubinsky, this also explains why there has been no reaction by European governments to the systemic human rights violations which characterize Zelensky’s regime.

Dubinsky emphasizes that, in contrast, even those Ukrainians who do not wish to fight and are evading military conscription are treated by the European powers as ‘problems’ if not enemies.

In May, a new round of the corruption scandal surrounding Zelensky began. Last year, recordings were published of his associates discussing corruption schemes in the energy generation and transmission industry and also in the procurement of body armor (as this author has previously reported). The main figures involved managed to flee to “Israel” at the time. Yermak formally resigned six months ago but has continued to informally oversee appointments and state policy even while under investigation.

During the now long war with Russia, the presidential office in Kiev has become the primary or sole decision-making center, stripping national legislators, local authorities, and the Ukrainian judiciary of their powers.

Zelensky said that he had come to power with Yermak and would leave with him (another lie). Last year, the Financial Times reported that Zelensky and Yermak had been living together in a bunker since the outbreak of war with Russia in 2022, sleeping in side-by-side beds.

In May, a new batch of audio recordings has been made public in multiple, small releases. In these, Yermak continues to be mentioned. One case concerns the building of personal mansions in an exclusive community near Kiev for Zelensky, Yermak, and two other individuals in their inner circle. The land was illegally acquired from the state.

Anti-corruption authorities are also accusing Yermak of laundering nearly half a billion hryvnia US$11.3 million for his personal gain.

Following these latest revelations, Yermak was placed in pretrial detention for the duration of the investigation, with the right to be released on bail. But just two days later, 140 million hryvnia in bail was made, and Yermak was released. The Ukrainian online publication Strana reported that Zelensky made considerable efforts to organize a fundraiser for his ally’s release, without which they might still be searching for the money to bail the man out.

The corruption case against Yermak is indirectly a case against Zelensky, although as long as the latter remains in office as president, he enjoys immunity from any and all criminal prosecution.

As reported on Telegram on May 15 by Artem Dmitruk, a former legislator of Zelensky who fled to London where he continues to reside, Zelensky responded to a question by Bloomberg News on July 4, 2024 about whether Andriy Yermak had excessive influence. Zelensky replied, “Yermak is a powerful manager, one of the most powerful managers on my team. I respect him for the results. He does what I tell him to do. And he gets the job done.”

Today, Andriy Yermak is officially a suspect in a criminal case involving particularly serious charges. According to the criminal investigation, the case involves the laundering of hundreds of millions of hryvnias, as well as other incidents that have already become the subject of a public inquiry. Thus, Zelensky himself has acknowledged that Yermak has acted on Zelensky’s direct instructions, writes Dmitruk.

In other words, all of Yermak’s decisions, actions, and results are not his personal initiative alone, but rather the fulfillment of tasks set by the “president” and his entourage. In light of these scandals, people in Ukraine are asking: who are the ‘instigators’ and who is really behind the anti-corruption activists who have decided to rein in Zelensky’s inner circle?

Strana reports at some length on May 7 that a release of wiretaps concerning businessman Timur Mindich, a close friend and associate of President Volodymyr Zelensky, has predictably sparked renewed pressure on the government. It says the anti-corruption investigation (a key part of what the publication calls an emerging “anti-Zelensky coalition”) is focused on three individuals: National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov, another close friend of Zelensky named Serhiy Shefir, and Andriy Yermak. The report notes that anti-corruption bodies in Ukraine are linked to and funded by the government of former US President Joseph Biden and by current politicians in Europe.

The report provides more detail on what it terms the ‘anti-Zelensky coalition’. The anti-corruption scenarios are dangerous for the governing elite in Ukraine, risking a loss of funds the West provides for the war and a loss of the levers of power allowing the continued plundering of the Ukrainian population.

Ukrainian political analyst Kost Bondarenko is convinced that any prosecution of Yermak will drag on for a very long time and then fall apart. Yermak will ultimately walk away scot-free, writes Bondarenko, while any court rulings will be temporary in nature, intended merely to calm public outcry while demonstrating that post-2014 Ukraine still has a fair judicial system. “First and foremost, this is a show for the West,” he writes, emphasizing that behind any ‘anti-corruption’ investigations lie other corrupt officials clearing their own paths to power and their own financial flows.

Zelensky’s former press secretary Yulia Mendel speaks out

The filing of criminal charges against the ‘second most powerful person’ (Yermak) in the Ukrainian state coincides with the release of an interview on May 11 with Zelensky’s former press secretary, Yulia Mendel. She was interviewed by right-wing blogger Tucker Carlson. In it, she hints several times that Zelensky uses drugs and is directly involved in corruption schemes. Furthermore, according to her, Zelensky and Yermak are extremely narcissistic individuals.

“Yermak knows he is a narcissist and knows that Zelensky is a narcissist too. They are two malicious, paranoid narcissists. Both are on the defensive. It really is two kinds of sick minds,” says Zelensky’s former secretary, who has fled to the US.

According to Mendel, one minister was invited into an office where Zelensky, Yermak, and one other person were present. There was a bag of dollars on the table. Zelensky suggested that the man receive money informally in cash, in addition to his official salary.

Mendel argues that Zelensky has never intended to step down from the presidency. “We’re here to stay,” Zelensky has said, according to Mendel. She says he has placed particular emphasis on propaganda, demanding an aggressive propaganda campaign and going so far as to cite ‘goebbels’ as a model, referring to Nazi Germany’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.

Ukrainian economist Daniil Monin notes that the arrest and detention of Yermak on May 14 followed Mendel’s interview on May 11. He believes this was not a coincidence. “A systematic process of discrediting Zelensky has begun in Ukraine, and this is probably a good thing from the perspective of bringing the war to an end. But the problem is that the people initiating such actions are themselves ideologically vacuous and typically pursue personal interests rather than the interests of Ukraine,” he writes.

Black magic at work in Kiev

On May 12, more details emerged in the case of Yermak that corroborate long-standing reports that Ukrainian authorities base their decisions in part or in whole on certain ‘otherworldly’ considerations. Prosecutors from the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office stated at Yermak’s pretrial hearing that one of Yermak’s items of correspondence mentioned a fortune-teller named Veronika Fengshui, whom the man has reportedly consulted regarding important personnel decisions, including the appointment of prosecutors and ministers.

“While Ukrainian diplomats have been convincing the West of ‘European-quality governance’ prevailing in Ukraine, personnel decisions, conflicts within the government, and strategic issues have reportedly been discussed with an astrologer,” writes the Ukrainian publication Argument on May 17. It notes that Yermak even discussed issues related to gas and energy supplies with the fortune-teller, based on her esoteric beliefs.

In April, the Ukrainian publication Ukrainska Pravda, citing sources close to Zelensky, reported that anti-corruption agencies confirmed the use of numerologists and tarot readers in the president’s office in the making of decisions and key appointments.

Last year, during the NABU’s first investigation into Yermak, former legislator Ihor Mosiychuk reported that a search of Yermak’s belongings had uncovered “voodoo dolls, masks, and satanic stars,” as well as bracelets and tattoos bearing related symbols. “All of this indicates that Yermak belongs to one of the occult sects,” the former legislator claimed.

On January 31 of this year, Yulia Mendel stated that Yermak practiced magic and had even brought certain sorcerers to Kiev. All this mystical nonsense, straight out of a cheap horror movie, has literally entangled Ukrainian politics.

Ukrainian political analyst Kost Bondarenko wrote earlier this year that in times of deep political turmoil and crisis, there is typically a surge in demand for all kinds of charlatans. Think of the mystic Grigori Rasputin, who advised Czar Nicholas II during the dying years of the Russian monarchy. According to Bondarenko, only future historians will be able to understand how many events in Ukraine related to the war and Zelensky’s actions were not the result of external influence or political calculation but rather the consequence of numerological formulas and communication with spirits.

Ukrainian political strategist Andriy Zolotaryov says he feels very uneasy knowing that “a Voodoo-type cult has taken root in Koncha-Zaspa” (an elite village near Kiev where rich families of legislators and ministers live). Commenting on Yermak’s fascination with all sorts of occult practices, Zolotaryov notes that the man made state decisions, yet, “at one time he had fortune-tellers, then they brought in Kabbalists, followed by Colombian sorcerers.” In his view, this indicates a lack of knowledge and competence and explains the Ukraine regime’s overall slide into backward-looking, archaic thought.

A great irony of fate lies in the fact that the country named Ukraine once pioneered the building of rockets to explore space, whereas today it is led by obscurantist figures who believe in charlatans, spirits, and all manner of concocted, evil forces.

May 30, 2026 - Posted by aletho | Corruption | Ukraine