Ukraine corruption scandal puts top figures under scrutiny

Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's jailed former president, has appealed to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to arrange a prisoner swap with Russia that would see him released.

Saakashvili, the former pro-Western leader of Georgia who was in office between 2004 and 2013, became a Ukrainian citizen in 2015. He then served as governor of Ukraine's southern Odesa region for about a year and a half. 

In a Facebook post, Saakashvili asked Zelenskyy to include him "on the list of civilian prisoners of this war, with the corresponding legal consequences", stating that he had been "illegally detained by the pro-Russian regime in Georgia".

On Wednesday, Saakashvili was transferred back to prison from a private clinic, where he had been receiving treatment, to continue serving his sentence. He has denounced the sentence as politically motivated.

Zelenskyy had previously called on the Georgian authorities to allow Saakashvili to be sent to Ukraine for treatment, but this request was denied.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to ensure  fewer young Ukrainian men seek to emigrate to Germany, saying they should instead "serve their country." 

Merz told a crowd at a business event in Germany on Thursday that he had told Zelenskyy the young men were "needed" at home.

Recent changes to wartime emergency laws prohibiting Ukrainian men aged 18-22 from leaving the country led to an uptick in young men looking to move to Germany.

The chancellor also voiced support for his government's plans to remove the automatic eligibility for social benefits that had been granted to Ukrainian refugees in the aftermath of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. 

Going forward, they would be entitled to the same system of state support afforded to typical asylum-seekers rather than that of German residents.

Merz also said there would be "concrete changes" going forward designed to push for Ukrainians in Germany to seek work rather than to receive state support.

According to recent German media reports citing government sources, Labor Minister Bärbel Bas (a Social Democrat) and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (a member of the conservative Bavarian CSU) recently agreed on plans to change Ukrainian's entitlement to German benefits, although the details have not yet been formally presented.

Merz has been trying to strike a tougher tone on migration and asylum amid the challenge from the populist right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD), the leader of the opposition in parliament and the second-largest party in the country since federal elections earlier this year.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted to X that there was a need for more pressure on Russia, and that, according to his assessment of the battlefield situation, Russian forces would continue fighting.

Zelenskyy said he thinks Russia wants a "big war" and that Europe has to be ready by 2029 or 2030 to face that prospect.

"We have to recognize that they want a big war and prepare to be ready in 2029 or 2030 — in this period of time — to begin such a big war," he said. "On the European continent. We look at this like a really big challenge.

"I think that we have to think about how to stop them now in Ukraine."

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he visited troops near the front line in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

Zelenskyy said he visited troops near the frontline town of Orikhiv, publishing photographs of his meeting with soldiers.

"The main focus was on the operational situation in the South, the tasks for brigades and regiments, along with military and personnel measures to stabilize the situation in the Rivnopillya area," Zelenskyy posted to X.

Zelenskyy announced that he visited troops a day after a Ukrainian commander said that the Russian army took control of three settlements in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Ukraine's anti-graft agency, also known as NABU, launched an investigation in the summer of 2024 into the country's state-owned energy company, Energoatom.

On Monday, NABU announced they detained five people and suspect seven people in total of having been part of a network that allegedly demanded bribes from the energy company's contractors.

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Europe's top development banks and Ukrainian energy firm Naftogaz signed a deal on Thursday to provide hundreds of millions of euros to secure Ukraine's natural gas supply amidRussian attacks on Ukraine's civilian infrastructure.

Ukrainian gas imports have risen as the war with Russia batters the country's energy system. Norway announced earlier this year that it would provide financing for Ukrainian purchases of its natural gas.

The European Investment Bank (EIB), the EU's lending arm, said an EU grant would provide €127 million ($147 million) of additional funding to Naftogaz on top of a €300 billion loan it outlined last month.

A further €25 million grant is to be provided to improve Ukraine's drinking water and wastewater treatment systems, and another €50 million has been extended to support an EIB-approved social housing reconstruction loan. 

Ukraine's top military commander visited units fighting to hold Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region and to coordinate operations in person, he said on Telegram.

Ukrainian troops are locked in intense combat with Russian forces in the city amid Russia's push to advance deeper into eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian General Oleksandr Syrskyi said the key goals are to regain control of certain areas of the city as well as to protect logistic routes and create new ones so troops can be supplied and wounded soldiers can be evacuated. 

"There is no question of Russian control over the city of Pokrovsk or of the operational encirclement of Ukraine's defense forces in the area," Syrskyi said. 

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, emphasizing his expectation that Ukraine "would vigorously pursue the fight against corruption."

A statement said that the two spoke about the corruption probe in Ukraine, with Zelenskyy having pledged full transparency as well as "long-term support for independent anti-corruption agencies, and further swift measures to regain the trust of the Ukrainian people, European partners, and international donors."

The leaders spoke about the need to increase pressure on Moscow to compel Russia to enter into "serious negotiations" on a peace settlement, as well as "more effective use of Russia's immobilized state assets."

Germany has backed a plan to tap Russian immobilized assets for Ukraine amid opposition from Belgium. The EU has said it would make a decision this December.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Thursday that the EU would disburse a €5.9 billion ($6.8 billion) loan to Ukraine and promised more money for Kyiv.

"We will cover the financial needs of Ukraine for the next two years," she said in a speech to the European Parliament.

Von der Leyen said she still hopes to convince EU member states to go ahead with a plan to provide Ukraine with €140 billion in loans from frozen Russian assets.

She said she hopes to convince Belgium, which has continued to block the proposal amid legal fears, saying: "We are working closely with Belgium, and all member states, on options." 

EU finance ministers were meeting in Brussels this morning to discuss the bloc's economic agenda, including the urgent question of funding Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office issued a decree imposing "personal economic" sanctions on a former business associate of the president, Timur Mindich, and another businessman Oleksandr Tsukerman.

Ukrainian media identified Timur Mindich, also a businessman, as one of the alleged ringleaders of a wide-ranging corruption scandal involving the state nuclear energy company Energoatom.

Mindich is a co-owner of Kvartal 95, the media production company Zelenskyy founded before he entered politics.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) — which operates independently of the government — announced this week after a 15-month-long investigation that several individuals had formed a network and built "a large-scale corruption scheme to influence strategic enterprises in the public sector, in particular Energoatom."

NABU released excerpts of tapes in which the network, using code names and secretive language, discussed blackmail and pressuring Energoatom contractors to extract kickbacks worth 10% - 15% of contract values.

Investigators say the network laundered roughly $100 million through a secret Kyiv-based office.

The scandal is one of the most serious government crises to have emerged during Zelenskyy's presidency, who was elected on a mandate to eliminate graft. 

The widening corruption scandal in the energy sector in Ukraine has placed the country's ruling elite into sharp focus and forced out two ministers in the government.

Plus, EU finance ministers discuss the question of funding Ukraine in the future during a meeting to discuss the economic agenda of the bloc in Brussels. 

We'll be following all the latest developments right here.