A second batch of secretly recorded conversations from Ukraine's largest anti-corruption investigation has been published by Ukrainska Pravda, Ukraine's leading investigative outlet, implicating figures at the heart of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's inner circle in discussions about bail money, defence contracts, luxury real estate and personnel appointments — and prompting calls for the suspension of the country's national security chief.

New "Mindich tapes" from Operation Midas that exposed a $100mn kickback scheme run by close Zelenskiy friends at the state nuclear utilities company Energoatom, capture conversations between a sanctioned fugitive businessman and the president's former aide and Ukraine's current national security chief — deepening a scandal that has already cost several officials their positions.

The recordings were made by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) as part of an investigation into high level corruption in Bankova. So far Zelenskiy himself has not been implicated directly in the scandal, but the latest tapes include his closest associates in government and further tarnish the increasingly embattled president.

Tymur Mindich is at the centre of the scandal and skipped the country only hours before NABU officers raided his home where they found large amounts of cash and a toilet made out of gold amongst other things. Mindich is currently living in Israel, which does not extradite its citizens.

The tapes capture sanctioned businessman Mindich speaking with Serhiy Shefir, a former first aide to President Zelenskiy and one of his longest-standing business partners; Rustem Umerov, who was then defence minister and is now secretary of the National Security and Defence Council; and an unidentified woman named Natalia. The conversations were held in Russian and recorded in Mindich's apartment at 9a Hrushevskoho Street in Kyiv during the summer of 2025.

Mindich has denied wrongdoing and called the case against him "a media stunt." His office declined to comment on the latest recordings. Umerov's office said it does not comment on "fragmentary recordings of questionable authenticity." Speaking in the Verkhovna Rada on April 28, Umerov said he had already given anti-corruption agencies all explanations about the mention of his name in the Midas case.

What the tapes show

The recordings consist of three separate conversations from June and July 2025. In the first, Mindich and Shefir discuss the legal situation of former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, who had been notified of suspicion of illicit enrichment, and specifically how to raise money for his bail of UAH120mn. The two men reference a shared informal "cash pool" and mention individuals identified only by the nicknames Kisel and Sova — described by Ukrainska Pravda as likely being members of parliament who allegedly passed portions of their income to Shefir.

Shefir is recorded saying: "First of all, it is unfair. When one is in a team, then with me, Kisel and Sova, if something happens somewhere, they are there. I immediately said: 50% — here."

A second conversation between Mindich and Umerov concerns the drone and missile company Fire Point — a business whose connection to Mindich he had previously denied and the producer of the Flamingo cruise missile. Fire Point was founded by people close to Zelenskiy and has garnered over $1bn in state-backed orders, about 10% of Ukraine’s defence spending, in 2025 to develop and supply drones and missiles.

The company has had the largest contracts from the Defence Ministry during Umerov’s tenure as minister. It is also a beneficiary of the Danish model, where foreign governments fund Ukrainian defence firms directly. Western and allied funding effectively acts as capex financing through orders rather than equity. However, it has had one direct foreign capital injection: UAE defence group EDGE agreed to buy 30% for $760mn, implying a $2.5bn valuation.

So far there are only a handful of unconfirmed reported uses of the Flamingo missiles, although the Ministry of Defence claims its other products are responsible for 60% of the long-range strikes into Russia.

In the recording, Mindich complains to Umerov about the company being underfunded and discusses the potential sale of a 33% stake to foreign investors. Umerov is heard asking Mindich whether a proposed deal "will suit us," and the two also discuss personnel reshuffles, including the potential appointment of then-Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal as defence minister. Mindich responds: "It will just weaken you."

A third conversation, with an unidentified woman named Natalia, concerns the construction of luxury properties in Kozyn, a wealthy enclave near Kyiv, linked to a residential cooperative called "Dynasty." Pictures circulating on social media show a set of large luxury mansions, complete with formal gardens and swimming pools, inside a gated community near the river in a luxury district of Kyiv.

In the recordings, Natalia says the facades of "Andriy's" project — a reference believed by Ukrainska Pravda to be Andriy Yermak, the former head of the Presidential Office who resigned following the first batch of Mindich tapes in November 2025 — are complete, and that a fence now separates Mindich's house from "Vova's" — a familiar form of Volodymyr Zelenskiy's name. A law enforcement source told the Kyiv Independent that one of the luxury houses was intended for Yermak. The Presidential Office and Yermak did not respond to requests for comment.

The wider scandal

Operation Midas, launched in November 2025, involved 15 months of data collection, more than 70 searches, $4mn seized and approximately 1,000 hours of recorded conversations.

NABU characterised the scheme as a "high-level criminal community" that established control over Energoatom's procurement and systematically demanded kickbacks of 10 to 15% of contract value from suppliers. The operation began after the 2022 Russian invasion, as investigators found the group exploited the confusion surrounding wartime energy and defence procurement. A significant tariff increase for electricity in 2023 substantially expanded Energoatom's revenues, creating additional opportunities for theft.

Among the named suspects, former Energy Minister German Hlushchenko — who had by then become Justice Minister — was detained by NABU in February 2026 while attempting to cross the Ukrainian border on the Kyiv-Warsaw train. He was subsequently charged with participating in a criminal organisation and money laundering. Zelenskiy himself demanded the resignation of both Hlushchenko and former Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk, and publicly stated that "everyone who perpetrated these schemes must receive a clear procedural response."

“Friends of Volodymyr Zelenskyy were pulling strings to install their people on the supervisory boards of state institutions—for example, Sense Bank, which was nationalized during the war and is notorious in certain circles as a classic money-laundering operation,” said Iuliia Mendel, Zelenskiy’s former press secretary in a social media post. “They were also siphoning cash out of state-owned enterprises that they snapped up for pennies, thanks to their very convenient “expertise.” And yes, they were even hand-picking candidates for minister positions.”

The political moment

Some Ukrainian outlets have suggested the timing of the leak — coming days after the EU approved a €90bn assistance package for Ukraine — reflects political pressure on Zelenskiy to appoint EU-approved candidates to lead other law enforcement agencies that do not enjoy the institutional independence of NABU and its sister organisation Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO).

Leaks to the media are a longstanding tool of political infighting in Ukraine, as in many other countries, and Ukrainska Pravda acknowledged publishing the recordings was in the public interest despite having no independent means of verifying all of their contents.

Ukraine's anti-corruption body urged Zelenskiy to suspend Umerov from his position as national security council secretary and to partially nationalise Fire Point, "to ensure uninterrupted supplies to the front under certain conditions, while preventing the enrichment of individuals involved in corrupt practices." An opposition lawmaker has called on Umerov to testify before a parliamentary committee in mid-May.

NABU and SAPO both operate entirely independently from the government and were set up at the insistence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the EU to fight corruption.

Zelenskiy caused a crisis last summer when he reconvened the government during its summer break at short notice and rammed through Law 12414 in July that would have gutted Ukraine’s anti-corruption efforts by placing both NABU and SAPO directly under the president’s control. That move sparked Ukraine’s first anti-government protests since the war began and forced Zelenskiy to back down and repeal the law only a few weeks later.

The incident was sparked as anti-corruption investigations came closer to his inner circle and was an attempt to head off the charges that have since emerged. Zelenskiy has been recently increasingly accused of authoritarian tendencies and has seen his popularity in the polls start to fall.

“Right now, Ukrainians are hearing more leaked recordings of Zelenskyy’s inner circle—conversations captured by Ukraine’s own anti-corruption agencies. These tapes aren’t just being played by an independent journalist anymore; they’re being read out loud by actual members of parliament,”  said Mendel. “This is exactly what I’ve been trying to tell people for some time now. Zelenskyy didn’t just surround himself with a crew—he built an entire mafia structure. Using the brutal restrictions of martial law as cover, he created a vertical of power that, frankly, makes Russia’s system look almost quaint by comparison. State institutions have been turned into personal ATMs for the president’s buddies."