The worst possible thing a human being can do during a war is to steal from the war effort.

Another corruption scandal linked with Timur Mindich, closest friend of President Zelensky: Maker of Ukraine’s new Flamingo cruise missile facing corruption probe.

Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency has been investigating the country’s star deep-strike drone company — Fire Point — over concerns that it misled the government on pricing and deliveries.

Zelensky-Mindich Ties

The current NABU investigation is tracing the firm’s ultimate ownership to Timur Mindich, a businessman who co-owns Kvartal 95, the television studio started by Zelensky, Mindich’s closest friend since childhood.

The Inexplicable Rise of Fire Point

Fire Point sold FP-1 long-range drones — roughly $320 million — to the government in 2024, 30% of total drone procurement of Ukraine.

Between 2023 and 2024, the company’s revenue, according to publicly available corporate documentation, grew from $4 million to over $100 million.

Fire Point’s staff grew from 18 in 2023 to 2,200 employees today.

Fire Point got a 1-billion-dollar contract in 2025 to produce the Flamingo missile under Danish model of European funding going to Fire Point via the Defense Ministry.

Critics question how a company got such a big contract from the government just with a prototype platform which is not in serial production and qualified as a product.

Fire Point and Government Funda

The former government officials say Fire Point was “without a doubt” the top among drone companies receiving government funds.

Timur Mindich’s accountant, Ihor Fursenko, was working as Fire Point’s accountant as well, a company that received a total of approximately €1.5 billion in funding for loitering munition drone production during the war.

In Ukraine currently there are at least 500 drone manufacturers established after the war in Ukraine similar to Fire Point, but only Fire Point has taken more than 30% of drone budget.

These contracts couldn’t be signed without the involvement of senior officials from the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine and others.

Nowadays the court has chosen for Ihor Fursenko (Timur Mindich’s accountant) a preventive measure: 60 days of detention with an alternative in the form of bail in the amount of 95 million hryvnias. He is suspected of embezzling funds from Energoatom.

The investigation calls Fursenko the chief accountant of the criminal organization. The prosecutor reported that €1.1 million and over $1 million in cash were seized from the suspect; he owns Lexus and Porsche Macan. Investigators describe Fursenko as a “back office” accountant.

On tape, he admitted that carrying a box of 1.6 million USD in cash was “not much of a pleasure.”

Money Laundering Operations

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau reported that an office in central Kyiv was used to launder funds obtained through corruption schemes in the energy sector.

This office is located 300 meters from Vasyl Malyuk’s SBU office.

According to investigators, this office was linked to the family of former Ukrainian MP Andriy Derkach, who became a senator in the Russian Federation after fleeing to Russia.

According to the NABU, approximately $100 million passed through this office. It was used to track “shadow” income, maintain “black bookkeeping,” and coordinate money laundering schemes through a network of offshore companies.

A significant portion of the transactions, including cash withdrawals, were conducted outside of Ukraine.

The published tapes also mention Igor Khmelev, referred to in the recordings as “Bumblebee.”

Khmelev is a longtime friend of Mindich. Mindich’s wife’s Kameron clothing business is registered to Khmelev.

Timur Mindich is married to Katya Verber, daughter of Alla Verber, a well-known Russian socialite (deceased).

Verber is the owner of the most famous global fashion retailers in Ukraine.

Israeli Citizen Mindich

President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a decree on the imposition of sanctions against Timur Mindich and Oleksandr Tsukerman, defendants in the Energoatom corruption scheme case.

According to the decree, both are citizens of Israel.

Ministers Resigned

On Wednesday, Zelensky demanded the resignations of Justice Minister German Galushchenko and Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk, both of whom were subsequently removed from the national security council.

Oleksiy Chernyshov, former Deputy Prime Minister who was removed from government in a cabinet shuffle over the summer, had received about $1.43 million in the kickback scheme.

At the heart of the case involving the nuclear power company is what the anticorruption agency said was a scheme in which participants took kickbacks of 10 to 15 percent from contractors.

Zelensky and Corruption

Zelensky came to power with promises to fight corruption in 2019.

The roots of the recent corruption scandal trace back to July 2025, when Ukraine’s security service (SBU) raided the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), sparking protests and concerns over attempts to undermine anti-corruption institutions.

Parliament responded by reinforcing NABU’s and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO)’s independence with measures like background checks and polygraph tests. This set the stage for deeper probes.