Zelensky shouldn't comment on ongoing corruption probe, President's Office adviser says
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Comments from President Volodymyr Zelensky on Ukraine's major corruption scandal should wait until after a court ruling in the case, Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to the President's Office, said on May 7, more than a week after the first leaked transcripts were published.
Recent leaks, published by Ukrainska Pravda and lawmakers over the past week, indicate that the largest corruption scandal affecting Zelensky's inner circle has expanded beyond the energy sector. The latest episode was published on May 8.
It now reportedly implicates the banking and defense industries, with attention also centered on the construction of four luxury homes near Kyiv. A man named "Vova," a short form of Volodymyr, is briefly mentioned as being involved.
When the leaks were first published on April 28, the President's Office declined to comment, while Zelensky has stayed tight-lipped on the scandal since it broke in November.
When asked why the president hadn't commented publicly, Podoliak replied that anti-corruption agencies were still investigating the case and that no court verdict had been issued.
"Next comes the court's decision, and after that there may be political commentary. What is there to comment on here?" Podoliak said in an interview aired on national television.
"(A political assessment) would be a direct interference in the law enforcement process."
The transcripts also provide more evidence of alleged links between Zelensky's former business partner Timur Mindich and then-Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who is now a secretary of the National Security and Defense Council.
Following the reports, Ukraine's Defense Ministry anti-corruption watchdog called for Umerov's suspension.
Podoliak said it is "a bit strange" to make personnel decisions based on published transcripts, saying that Umerov had denied the accusations of wrongdoing.
"He wants to verify the authenticity of the transcript," the adviser added.
Earlier in the week, a top official at Ukraine's state-owned Sense Bank, at the center of the country's largest corruption scandal, temporarily stepped aside following the publication of alleged audio transcripts linking the bank to the case. Zelesnky also said that Sense Bank must be privatized by the end of this year, and that there should be no delays.
In the span of a year, the scandal saw nine people being charged, and three ministers — a deputy prime minister, along with ministers of energy and justice — losing their jobs as a result of being implicated in what anti-corruption bodies say is a $100 million scheme.
Zelensky's Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak, the second most influential person in the country for a time, also lost his job following searches by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau.
