Update: Requests sent to Israel to extradite top suspects in Ukraine's biggest graft case

Ukraine has requested Israel extradite two suspects in a multi-million-dollar corruption case, Maryana Haikovska-Kovbasiuk, the spokesperson for the Prosecutor General's Office, told the Kyiv Independent on March 31.

The suspects — Timur Mindich, a close associate of the president, and businessman Oleksandr Tsukerman — are wanted in connection with the $100 million corruption scheme centered around the state nuclear monopoly Energoatom.

The probe, launched last year, is the biggest corruption investigation of Zelensky's tenure.

A detective on the case said the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) had prepared the extradition requests, which were sent for approval to Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko two weeks ago.

Nine suspects have been charged in the case. Apart from Mindich and Tsukerman, these include ex-Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov and former Energy and Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko.

Zelensky's ex-Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak and Rustem Umerov, former defense minister now secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, are also under investigation but have not been charged.

Oleksandr Abakumov, the detective in charge of the case, said in an interview with blogger Olena Tribushna that there have been cases when Israel extradited its citizens to Ukraine, though rarely.

“Israel is a very difficult country for extradition," he said. "In order to extradite a person, you essentially have to hand over all the materials of the criminal case.”

Mindich, an Israeli citizen, fled to Israel shortly before he was charged in November. He was interviewed by Ukrainska Pravda in Israel in December. Tsukerman has also fled Ukraine.

In February, media outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported that Yermak's lawyer Ihor Fomin and Yevhen Korniychuk, Ukraine's ambassador to Israel and Yermak's former partner at a law firm, had flown to Israel together in January.

Korniychuk drove Fomin in a Ukrainian embassy car to Herzliya, a suburb of Tel Aviv, where Mindich lives, according to photographs published by Ukrainska Pravda. Fomin met Israeli lawyer Boris Lemper, who allegedly provides legal services to Mindich, according to footage published by Ukrainska Pravda.

Korniychuk has been alleged to have close ties to Yermak. Ukrainska Pravda’s sources said Fomin intended to persuade Mindich not to testify against Yermak in exchange for protection.

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