Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy fired one of his top aides on Wednesday after her house was raided by anti-corruption authorities, as the Ukrainian president comes under attack over multiple graft allegations against close allies.
Anti-corruption authorities launched raids over an alleged scheme to launder $3.4 million (€2.9 million) through a state-owned bank to post bail for Zelenskiy’s ex-energy minister Herman Halushchenko, who was charged last autumn in the biggest graft case of his presidency.
Deputy presidential administration head Iryna Mudra, a close Zelenskiy ally, was the highest-profile target in the raids, alongside a politician and executives at state-owned Sense Bank, said law enforcement.
A National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (Nabu) official said the money had been “laundered through a series of accounts belonging to shell companies in order to pay bail for a member of the criminal organisation”.
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Mudra’s sacking threatens to engulf the president in another graft scandal just as he comes under attack from ousted defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov.
The night before the raid, Fedorov had launched a blistering broadside against Zelenskiy, warning that rampant graft was undermining the country’s fight against Russia and calling for extraordinary wartime elections.
Fedorov was fired after clashing with top military brass, in a shock move that sparked rare protests in Kyiv and countrywide. Zelenskiy was forced to change his initial pick to replace the popular minister and his new choice, Yevhenii Khmara, was approved by parliament on Wednesday.
Mudra, who had been in her role since March 2024, joined a long list of Zelenskiy allies to be tied to corruption investigations.
Powerful former chief of staff Andriy Yermak was charged in May with illicit enrichment and abuse of power, in a case allegedly involving a former deputy prime minister and ex-business partner of the president. Several politicians from Zelenskiy’s ruling party were also accused of taking bribes in exchange for parliamentary votes.
In early August, Ukraine’s ambassador to the US resigned and was charged with illegal enrichment two days later.
All those charged have denied wrongdoing. Mudra, the president’s office and Sense Bank did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Nabu and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office said on Friday the raids targeted “a criminal organisation that operated under the leadership of current and former Ukrainian MPs, with the participation of high-ranking officials of the office of the president”.
The swelling cases against several close Zelenskiy allies have contributed to a fall in the president’s approval rating and sparked concern among western partners who have provided billions to keep the country afloat and support its military.
In an explosive nine-minute video late on Tuesday, Fedorov accused Zelenskiy – whose 2019 election he helped mastermind – of systemic failures and abusing martial law powers granted at the start of Russia’s invasion.
“Corruption in wartime is not merely a financial issue. It is a matter of our capability to survive and win,” he said against the backdrop of dramatic music.
Fedorov said Kyiv could not allow Moscow to determine when Ukrainians can go to the polls.
“We must not let [Russian president Vladimir] Putin decide when Ukrainians can choose their government,” said Fedorov. “Ukrainian democracy must not depend on the goodwill of the Kremlin.”
Officials involved in the raids told The Financial Times the searches also targeted justice ministry officials and representatives of Sense Bank, formerly Alfa-Bank, one of Ukraine’s largest financial institutions employing about 4,000 people.
They also searched the home of Vadim Stolar, a member of parliament who previously served for a pro-Russian party that was banned after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, the officials said.
Stolar confirmed the searches of his property in a post on Facebook, saying he was co-operating with investigators.
Nabu dubbed the case “Operation Forrest Gump”, publishing a cryptic 47-second video in the style of a Hollywood trailer that features a partial recording of an unknown man saying: “Only a moron would go and register the theft of money and payment for their kids’ education in the kids’ own names. That’s why it’s Forrest Gump.”
The agency, which often publishes slickly produced videos to accompany its operations, did not elaborate on its meaning.
The unfolding feud risks undermining the war effort, according to Olha Aivazovska, chairwoman of Kyiv-based think tank Opora.
“The political crisis is obvious, and unless a compromise is sought, all sides will move towards escalation,” she wrote on social media. “For some reason, the current leaders continue to operate in a peacetime political mode, without even fully imagining the cost of their mistakes.” – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026
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