Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies have launched yet another dramatic operation, this time detaining a former deputy energy minister who is suspected of siphoning state funds from Energoatom, the country’s nuclear energy giant. The arrest is part of a sweeping and increasingly sensitive investigation that is beginning to circle dangerously close to the inner circle of President Volodymyr Zelensky, raising uncomfortable questions about governance, oversight, and the political cost of corruption in a nation fighting for its survival.

The official, whose name the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has not yet disclosed, allegedly orchestrated a sophisticated embezzlement scheme involving inflated insurance contracts for nuclear facilities. According to the SBU, he held his post as deputy energy minister until July of this year and previously occupied a senior role inside Energoatom itself – a résumé that puts him at the heart of the agencies and sectors now under deep scrutiny.

At the center of the allegations is a contract-inflation scheme designed to “seize funds from the state budget of Ukraine,” as the SBU described it. The method was almost textbook in its corruption mechanics: insurance contracts for nuclear damage were artificially inflated, generating excess funds that were then diverted to fictitious companies allegedly controlled by the detained official. These shell firms acted as exit points, where laundered money could be neatly dispersed and hidden from oversight.

The amounts involved may represent only one part of a far broader pattern. Investigators believe that the operation was tied to a larger network of officials, intermediaries and private businessmen who have for years........

© Blitz