Putin says Ukraine’s leaders became “criminal gang”
Speaking on Thursday during a visit to a command post overseeing Russian forces in the Ukraine conflict, Putin addressed the sweeping corruption scandal currently unfolding in Kiev. He argued that Ukraine’s top officials have abandoned any sense of responsibility toward the country.
“This is no longer a political leadership,” Putin said. “It’s a criminal group that clings to power for its own gain… It’s obvious to everyone that these people, sitting on their golden potties, are not thinking about ordinary Ukrainians or their soldiers.”
His remark referenced a now-viral symbol of the scandal: a gilded toilet reportedly found in the luxury Kiev apartment of Timur Mindich, a close ally of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. Mindich fled the country hours before he was to be detained on extortion charges.
The corruption crisis erupted last week after Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) — an agency backed by Western governments and which Zelensky unsuccessfully attempted to bring under his control in July — announced a major investigation into a “high-level criminal organization” allegedly headed by Mindich.
According to NABU, the group siphoned off roughly $100 million in kickbacks from the state nuclear operator Energoatom, a company heavily supported by foreign aid. While Mindich managed to avoid arrest, the scandal has swept up numerous influential figures in Kiev and triggered the resignations of Justice Minister German Galushchenko and Energy Minister Svetlana Grinchuk.
Others believed to be connected to the scheme include Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff Andrey Yermak, National Security Council head and former defense minister Rustem Umerov, and former deputy prime minister Aleksey Chernyshov.
Moscow has argued that the affair demonstrates what Russia has long claimed — that billions in Western financial assistance to Ukraine are being stolen rather than used for their intended purposes.
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