A total of $7bn could have flowed from Ukraine’s state coffers into the missile-maker Fire Point, potentially earning Bankova’s insiders vast profits, Iuliia Mendel, Zelenskiy’s former press secretary, alleged in a blog post.

Ukraine's largest corruption investigation has widened further after a second batch of surveillance recordings emerged linking fugitive businessman Timur Mindich — the main suspect in a $100mn scheme to loot the state nuclear company Energoatom corruption scandal — to a drone manufacturer that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has personally promoted to international investors, and to officials at the highest levels of the Ukrainian state.

Iuliia Mendel, who served as Zelenskiy's press secretary from 2019 to 2021 before becoming a critic of his administration, published a blog post on April 30 alleging that the drone company at the centre of the scandal could have attracted up to $7bn in investment, with 20% — approximately $1.4bn — earmarked as profit for insiders, based on the information revealed in the secret recordings.

Separately, reportedly Fire Point has garnered some 10% of Ukraine defence procurement budget to produce the drones that have been so effective against the Armed Forces of Russia (AFR), making it one of the country’s largest military suppliers. This corresponds to around $1bn in military contracts, according to local reports. Ukraine has hundreds to thousands of defence suppliers which now supply up to 60% of Ukraine’s military needs, according to comments by Zelenskiy earlier this year.

Mendel, who has no direct access to the investigation, cited the secret audio recordings as the basis for her claims and accused Western mainstream media of failing to scrutinise the scandal adequately.

"My country is dying. My people are dying — so that one man and his friends can get obscenely wealthy," Mendel wrote, in a post addressed directly to journalists. "The gap between what Western media tells you and what is actually happening in Ukraine has grown too wide. It's time to close it." The Zelenskiy administration did not respond to Mendel's specific allegations.

Formerly a member of Zelenskiy’s inner circle, Mendel has become an increasingly outspoken critic of the president and has become a prominent voice calling for an end to the war, due to the scale of the deaths and injuries of Ukrainian personnel.

Fire Point makes roughly half of the long-distance drones that have been used to strike Russia’s oil and gas infrastructure in the last year, according to General Staff data. The unveiling of the FP-5 Flamingo missile was hailed as a breakthrough for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), which can carry a heavier payload and has a 3,000km range. But Ukraine still remains dependent on western-made missiles in its war with Russia, which are in increasingly short supply. Initial reports said the company could produce eight missiles a month. There have been nine reported salvos of the missile on the battlefield so far, which could involve around half a dozen missiles in each salvo, according to reports.

Ukraine's Defence Ministry Public Anti-Corruption Council issued a statement calling on the ministry to sever all ties with Fire Point, a drone manufacturer and maker of the Flamingo cruise missile founded in 2022 and widely promoted by Zelenskiy on overseas trips, following the publication of new transcripts by Ukrainska Pravda showing that Mindich was effectively running the company.

The new transcripts describe three separate alleged conversations. In one, Mindich speaks with Serhiy Shefir, a longtime business partner of Zelenskiy and former presidential aide, about raising funds for the bail of former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, who had been notified of suspicion of illicit enrichment. In a second, Mindich discusses additional funding for Fire Point with Rustem Umerov, who was then defence minister and is now secretary of the National Security and Defence Council. According to the transcripts, Mindich pressed Umerov for more financial backing and discussed how shareholders could extract $300mn in cash. A third conversation concerns a luxury property construction project in Kozyn — a wealthy suburb outside Kyiv — associated with figures close to Zelenskiy's administration.

The transcripts contain multiple references to a figure called "Vova" — a common diminutive of Volodymyr — though the Kyiv Independent, which has covered the investigation extensively, notes that no direct evidence has been presented linking the president personally to wrongdoing in the recordings. Ukrainska Pravda, Ukraine’s most famous investigative title, also acknowledged that the transcripts do not present evidence of new crimes but argues they reinforce the perception of close ties between Mindich and Ukraine's political leadership.

The advisory council has recommended a series of remedies, including dismissing implicated officials, potentially nationalising Fire Point and launching a comprehensive audit of all its defence contracts. Umerov has denied wrongdoing and no formal charges have been brought against him in connection with the allegations. Mindich, who fled Ukraine for Israel in November 2025 shortly before being formally charged, has described his alleged connection to Fire Point as "mythical and slanderous" and is contesting an extradition request.

The release of the second batch of recordings has deepened a growing domestic political crisis inside Ukraine's parliament, as the president is losing the support in his Servant of the People (SOTP) ruling party.

Opposition and independent members of the Verkhovna Rada called for Umerov to testify before a parliamentary committee, and some legislators raised the prospect of impeachment proceedings — a step that would require a two-thirds supermajority under Ukrainian law and is widely regarded as politically impractical under wartime conditions.

According to the most recent Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) poll, trust in Zelensky has dipped slightly but remains strong at 58%. Some 28% of respondents said they would like him to remain president, up slightly from 25% in October 2025. If elections were held this weekend Zelenskiy would vie with Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s former HUR spy master and now the head of the presidential administration, who has said a deal with Russia is closer than appears.

The institutional context

The investigation is being conducted by Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office — institutions that operate independently of the government and are supervised by international experts as a condition of Western financial support.

Their independence became a flashpoint last July when Zelenskiy signed off on Law 12414 in July placing both agencies under the authority of the Prosecutor General — a presidential appointee — triggering mass protests and international condemnation before he reversed course under pressure from Western partners and threats to freeze funding.

NABU has confirmed that Andriy Yermak, Zelenskiy's former chief of staff who resigned in November following searches at his premises, is referred to in the recordings under the codename "Khirurg." No charges have been brought against Yermak. A law enforcement source told the Kyiv Independent that one of the luxury houses in Kozyn referred to in the tapes was intended for Yermak — a claim that has not been independently verified.

The scandal arrives at a particularly sensitive moment. Fire Point has been one of the most visible symbols of Ukraine's domestic defence industry, promoted by Zelenskiy as a success story during visits to foreign governments and investment summits. Two thirds of the EU's €90bn loan package for Ukraine, approved last month, is funds earmarked for drone production — a coincidence that critics have pointed to, though no direct link between the EU funding and Fire Point has been established.

The Zelenskiy administration has not issued a formal response to the latest tape disclosures. NABU and SAPO are continuing their investigation.