Ukraine corruption crisis deepens as Zelensky’s new peace talks chief is caught up in same £76million fraud scandal as ousted chief of staff

The corruption crisis rocking Ukraine has deepened further after it was revealed that Volodymyr Zelensky’s new peace talks chief was involved in a £76 million scandal.

Anti-corruption organizations NABU and SAPO are investigating allegations that a group of eight people, including Ukrainian government officials, accepted bribes from the state nuclear energy company Energoatom.

His group of officials is said to have collected 10-15 per cent of the value of each contract awarded, with £76 million of money illegally given to this small group being money that could have been used to help protect Ukraine against Russian attacks.

The scandal, which has rocked Ukraine as it sends negotiators around the world to end Russia’s occupation, has claimed the scalp of Zelensky’s right-hand man and former army chief Andriy Yermak, who has now resigned after anti-corruption investigators raided his home and offices in connection with the ongoing investigation.

Yermak, once considered the second most powerful man in Ukraine, was due to be in Florida to meet with senior Trump officials about a peace plan to end the nearly four-year war.

He was replaced by Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umierov, who was summoned at the last minute. The Telegraph reported.

However, former defense minister Umierov, 43, is also involved in the same anti-corruption investigation and was called as a witness as recently as November 25.

A NABU spokesman said: ‘Rustem Umierov was summoned as a witness to NABU to testify in criminal proceedings regarding interference in the work of a public servant.

‘The interview was constructive. Rustem Umierov answered all the questions of the investigators within the framework of procedural law.

A Ukrainian soldier from the 100th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fires a Bohdana self-propelled howitzer from a front-line position towards Russian troops during Russia’s offensive against Ukraine near the front-line town of Kostiantynivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region November 29, 2025

Umierov’s appointment as top negotiator at this critical stage of the nearly four-year conflict was met with outrage.

Ukrainian politician Volodymyr Ariev told the Washington Post that Zelensky ‘has given up on a corruption scandal’ [figure] and I appointed another person to head the negotiating team.’

He said Ukraine needs officials who are not loyal to the president, are professional, and are committed to defending Ukraine’s interests.’

Following high-level talks in Florida, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said: ‘There’s a lot of moving parts and obviously there’s another side that needs to be part of the equation here and that will continue this week when Mr Witkoff travels to Moscow, although we’ve been in touch with the Russian side to varying degrees as well, we understand their views quite well as well.’

Umerov said before the talks: ‘We are discussing the future of Ukraine, the security of Ukraine, the non-recurrence of Ukraine’s aggression, the prosperity of Ukraine, how to rebuild Ukraine.

‘We are grateful for the efforts of the United States and its team to help us. ‘The USA hears us, the USA supports us, the USA walks with us and we are grateful for everything that is done.’

The talks mark the beginning of an important week for Ukrainian diplomats and leaders.

Zelensky will meet with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday.

Drone image of a church damaged by a Russian military attack, with a Ukrainian soldier standing over it, in the frontline town of Kostiantynivka, Ukraine’s Donetsk region, on November 28, 2025.

A local resident and firefighters monitor a fire at a damaged private house following a drone attack on Kiev, November 29, 2025.

And later this week, American officials, including Donald Trump’s top envoy Steve Witkoff, will travel to Moscow to meet with Kremlin officials and negotiate an end to the war.

Eager to please Trump, Kiev and Moscow have ostensibly welcomed the peace plan and effort to end the war.

However, Russia’s continued attack on Ukraine and reiteration of its maximalist demands show that reaching an agreement is still far away.

Last week, Putin hinted at how long he would fight to achieve his goals, saying he would only stop if Ukrainian troops withdraw from four Ukrainian regions that Russia illegally annexed in 2022 and still does not fully control. ‘If they do not retreat, we will achieve this by force. ‘That’s all,’ he said.

Putin said the plan could ‘form the basis of future agreements’ but was by no means final and required a ‘serious discussion’.

Zelensky avoided talking about individual issues, choosing instead to profusely thank Trump for his efforts and emphasize the need for European involvement, whose interests are more closely aligned with Ukraine’s. He also emphasized the importance of solid security guarantees for Ukraine.

The fire is growing after a Russian missile hit a high-rise residential building in Vyshgorod, outside Kiev, Ukraine, in the early hours of Sunday, November 30, 2025.

Firefighters try to extinguish a fire after a woman was injured following a Russian attack on the central market in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, on November 29, 2025.

The first version of the plan fulfilled some basic Russian demands, such as Ukraine handing over to Moscow the territory it had not yet occupied and giving up its goal of becoming a member of NATO.

Zelensky has repeatedly said that giving up land is not an option. One of the Ukrainian negotiators told The Associated Press that the Ukrainian president wants to discuss the territorial issue directly with Trump. Yermak later said in an interview with The Atlantic on Thursday that Zelensky would not sign over the land.

Zelensky also argues that NATO membership is the cheapest way to guarantee Ukraine’s security, and NATO’s 32 members said last year that Ukraine was on an “irreversible” path to membership. Since taking office, Trump has made it clear that NATO membership is off the table.

Moscow, too, bristled at any suggestion of deploying a Western peacekeeping force in Ukraine and insisted that keeping Ukraine out of NATO, and NATO out of Ukraine, was one of the main goals of the war.

NATO and the EU are holding several meetings focused on Ukraine this week. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte will host Ukrainian Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal for talks in Brussels on Monday, and EU defense and foreign ministers are meeting to discuss European military support for Ukraine and Europe’s defense preparedness.

On Wednesday, NATO foreign ministers will meet again in Brussels.

The big issue for the EU now is what to do with frozen Russian assets in Belgium, which the first version of the Trump peace plan intended to use for post-war investment in Ukraine.

Residents walk through dark streets after a Russian drone attack in Kiev, Ukraine, on November 30, 2025

Ukrainian priests light torches as mourners during the funeral of Ukrainian soldier Artur Vilchynskyi of the “Barracuda” aerial reconnaissance unit, killed in action in the Chernihiv region, at the National Military Memorial Cemetery near Kiev on November 28, 2025.

These funds are at the heart of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s strategy to maintain pressure on Russia while providing continued aid to Ukraine.

However, the Belgian prime minister resists, fearing the legal consequences of using frozen assets for Ukraine, the effects this could have on the euro, and Russia’s retaliation.

Nigel Gould-Davies of the International Institute for Strategic Studies wrote in a recent commentary that the diplomacy stimulated by Trump’s peace plan has ‘painfully exposed’ Europe’s weakness.

‘Although he is the main source of economic and military support for Ukraine, he is marginal in terms of war diplomacy and has done little more than propose changes to America’s draft peace plan,’ Gould-Davies wrote.