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Ukraine’s ex-energy minister arrested while attempting to leave country

Ukraine's previous two energy ministers resigned amid fallout from the so-called ‘Midas’ case

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Ukraine's anti-corruption agency accused an ex-energy minister on Monday of laundering millions of dollars of kickbacks in a corruption case that has shaken the wartime government, a day after he was detained trying to leave the country.

Herman Halushchenko, who served as energy minister from 2021-2025 and then briefly as justice minister until he resigned over the scandal last year, became one of the most senior officials detained in the ‘Midas’ case, over an alleged $100m (£73.5m) kickback scheme at the state nuclear company.

The case has ensnared senior officials and members of Ukraine's business elite – including a former close associate of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from his pre-political media career – and caused concern among Kyiv's Western allies.

Mr Halushchenko “was exposed for money laundering and participation in a criminal organisation” by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and its prosecuting sister agency SAPO, according to a statement from NABU.

It said more than $7m (£5.1m) had been transferred to foreign accounts naming Mr Halushchenko's wife and four children as beneficiaries. Some was spent on educating the children at elite schools in Switzerland, and some were placed in “a deposit, from which the family of the high-ranking official received additional income and spent it on their own needs”.

Mr Halushchenko has denied wrongdoing. There was no reply to a message sent to him seeking comment.

NABU had said on Sunday that Mr Halushchenko was detained “while crossing the state border”, without specifying where the arrest took place.

Prosecutors say participants in the Midas scheme squeezed nuclear company Energoatom's contractors for bribes to complete projects, including structures to protect energy facilities from Russian airstrikes.

They had previously said the plot was organised by a former associate of Mr Zelensky, Timur Mindich, who fled to Israel before he could be arrested in November. Mr Mindich, who founded the TV studio behind the hit sitcom that brought the president fame as an actor before he entered politics, has denied wrongdoing.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses the audience during a session at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany on Saturday (AP)

A former deputy prime minister was arrested in November and NABU has said other former senior officials are under investigation.

The case sparked a political scandal last year that led to the ouster of president Zelensky's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, and fuelled new public anger at lingering corruption as Ukraine fights Russia in its four-year war.

Mr Zelensky had tried to limit the independence of the anti-corruption agencies last year before reversing it in the face of public protests and pressure from Western allies.

Energoatom CEO Pavlo Kovtoniuk said last week that the company had taken a number of steps to prevent the recurrence of corruption schemes in the future.

Battling corruption is a key priority in Ukraine's reform effort as it eyes membership of the European Union, which requires the country shake off the decades-old scourge of graft.