Update: Zelensky's chief of staff comments on alleged references to him in corruption case tapes

Key takeaways:

• President Volodymyr Zelensky's Chief of Staff Kyrylo Budanov is allegedly mentioned by his former deputy Iryna Mudra on the tapes
• In at least one conversation, Budanov's voice was allegedly recorded
• Timur Mindich, a top Zelensky associate, allegedly delivered cash to Budanov to pay a suspect's bail with laundered money
• Mindich also allegedly asked Budanov to take over Sense Bank's cash flows
• Sense Bank's management was allegedly prepared to take orders from Budanov
• Budanov allegedly told Mudra not to fight corruption but to control it

Kyrylo Budanov, head of the President’s Office, features in audio tapes recorded by investigators as part of the latest large-scale corruption case, the media outlet Hromadske reported on Aug. 26, citing court materials.

The Kyiv Independent has requested comment from the President’s Office and will publish its response once it is received.

The tapes were released as part of a major corruption investigation against President Volodymyr Zelensky’s former Deputy Chief of Staff Iryna Mudra and other suspects. Last week they were charged by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) with corporate raiding and money laundering.

The latest case is linked to last year’s probe into state nuclear power monopoly Energoatom — the largest corruption investigation of Zelensky’s tenure. The Mudra case also comes on the heels of corruption charges against Zelensky’s former Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak in May.

Budanov commented on the case to Hromadske on Aug. 27.

“Let the court sort it out," he said. "You know, it (his name) comes up in a lot of places,” Budanov said when asked about alleged references to him in the tapes.

He also said he had spoken to Mudra after her dismissal amid the NABU searches at her premises last week.

“First, dismissal is a legal process," he said. "Second, as a matter of principle, I never turn my back on people until there are definitive conclusions. If the court finds her guilty, that’s a different matter."

At a court hearing on Aug. 25, a lawyer for Sense Bank CEO Oleksiy Stupak, one of the suspects in the latest case, publicly cited NABU tapes referring to “Kyrylo Oleksiyovich" — a person whose first name and patronymic coincide with Budanov’s. He did not specify his last name.

“Listen, Kyrylo Oleksiyovich called and asked what’s going on with Sense Bank,” Mudra said, according to the tapes cited by the lawyer.

Meanwhile, transcripts included in the prosecutors' motions in the case explicitly state that Budanov took part in the conversations, Hromadske reported.

In the alleged transcripts, Budanov thanked ex-lawmaker Maksym Mykytas, a suspect in the case, for his work.

“I’m with Kyrylo Oleksiyovich,” Mudra told Mykytas. “I put it on speaker.”

“Thank you, hello,” Budanov allegedly replied. “Thanks a lot.”

According to the alleged transcripts, on June 9 Mudra and Myktytas discussed a request by Timur Mindich, a suspect in the Energoatom case and a close Zelensky associate, to take over Sense Bank's cash flows.

“Mindich approached Kyrylo," Mudra allegedly said in an apparent reference to Kyrylo Budanov. "To take control of it... Wait, there are some serious money flows there... There’s no one to take them over right now. Do you understand? And once Gera (an apparent reference to ex-Justice and Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko) gets out, he’ll get his hands on those flows again. So we need to bargain for something for ourselves before that happens.”

Mudra and Mykytas are accused of laundering Hr 150 million ($3.4 million) and transferring the funds through Sense Bank to post bail for Halushchenko.

Halushchenko was charged in February in the Energoatom case.

According to the alleged transcripts, Mudra said that Sense Bank’s management was prepared to follow instructions from Kyrylo  — an apparent reference to Budanov.

“They’re ready to do anything," she allegedly said. "I mean, wherever Kyrylo tells them to bring (the money), they’ll take it... They’ll do whatever he says.”

On June 17, Mykytas allegedly said that Mindich had personally delivered cash for Halushchenko's bail to “Kyrylo Oleksiyovych" — another apparent reference to Budanov.

“And if we pull this off smoothly now, you have no idea..." Mykytas said. "I mean Kyrylo Oleksiyovych... He’s doing Mindich a huge favor right now. And he brought the money, by the way. Mindich personally delivered it to him.”

Mudra also allegedly said that “Timur” — an apparent reference to Mindich — called “Kyrylo” — an apparent reference to Budanov — and said: “Listen, Kyrylo, please take over Sense Bank.”

“You can’t trust the bank to these crooks, and there are cash flows going through it,” she allegedly said, citing Timur. “Serious cash flows, he says... ‘Take the bank under your control,’ he says... You see how quickly Mindich changed tack. He had his hands on all the cash flows.”

Mykytas and Mudra also discussed measures to avoid detection on Feb. 9, 2026, according to the alleged transcripts published by Hromadske.

During the conversation, Mudra told Mykytas that she had been invited to a gathering that court chiefs were expected to attend. But she decided not to go because she did not want to be seen with judges at a restaurant by the NABU.

“They invited me,” Mudra allegedly said. “Well, I’m not going. It wouldn’t be right. I mean, I’m telling you, if Budanov finds out... Especially since they meet at restaurants that are definitely on the NABU’s radar, you know?”

“Well, Budanov said not to meet at restaurants,” Mykytas said.

Mudra also said in the alleged transcripts that she had told Budanov she wants "to do the right things."

"I think fighting corruption is a very good thing, and if we manage to ratify this convention now and become a party to it, that will be something you and I can take credit for," she allegedly said.

Budanov then allegedly asked her, as cited by Mudra in the transcripts: "Do you really want to fight corruption?"

"Well, I don’t want my country to become mired in corruption," Mudra allegedly replied.

"Look, that’s the wrong approach," Budanov allegedly said. "Corruption needs to be systematized and controlled."

Mudra also allegedly told Mykytas in their conversations that she regularly received unofficial payments of $20,000–$30,000 from "Kyrylo" — yet another apparent reference to Budanov.

The media outlet Ukrainska Pravda also reported on Aug. 20, citing its sources, that Budanov’s name is mentioned in the text of the charges against Mudra.

On the tapes officially published by the NABU, Mudra repeatedly refers to her “boss." Mudra has two bosses — Zelensky and Budanov.

Apart from Mudra, Mykytas, and Stupak, lawmaker Vadym Stolar and Viktor Dubovyk, head of the legal policy department at the President's Office, were also charged as part of the case last week. Stolar has fled abroad.

Stolar, Mudra and Myktytas are also accused of illegally seizing real estate by hacking the corporate register, forging documents, and bribing judges and law enforcement agencies.