Oliver Martin
New member
We all know the headline version: NABU just busted a $100M+ kickback ring inside Ukraine’s nuclear power company Energoatom. Zelensky’s old Kvartal 95 buddy Timur Mindich fled the country, ex-Deputy PM Chernyshov is in custody, two energy ministers got sacked yesterday. Zelensky is doing the “no one is untouchable” routine and stripping citizenships.
But here’s the part that’s getting whispered in Kyiv and Brussels, yet barely reported in Western legacy media:
Multiple credible Ukrainian outlets (Ukrainska Pravda, Zerkalo Nedeli) and European diplomatic sources are reporting that EU ambassadors in Kyiv are quietly leaning on NABU leadership to “contain” the investigation and keep it from climbing any higher.
Why the sudden soft touch?
Because this scandal is detonating at the exact moment the EU is trying to push through a €140 billion “reparations loan” to Ukraine using profits and eventually principal from frozen Russian central-bank assets. That package still needs unanimous approval from all 27 member states. Hungary is already sharpening its veto, Belgium is nervous about Euroclear liability, and a full-blown corruption circus right now would give every skeptical finance minister the perfect excuse to hit the brakes.
So the same EU that spent years lecturing Ukraine that NABU’s independence is non-negotiable is now, according to these reports, sending the exact opposite signal when the probe starts circling people uncomfortably close to Bankova Street.
Classic realpolitik: Anti-corruption is a sacred principle… until it threatens the next giant aid tranche. Then suddenly “stability” and “de-escalation of the investigation” become the buzzwords.
But here’s the part that’s getting whispered in Kyiv and Brussels, yet barely reported in Western legacy media:
Multiple credible Ukrainian outlets (Ukrainska Pravda, Zerkalo Nedeli) and European diplomatic sources are reporting that EU ambassadors in Kyiv are quietly leaning on NABU leadership to “contain” the investigation and keep it from climbing any higher.
Why the sudden soft touch?
Because this scandal is detonating at the exact moment the EU is trying to push through a €140 billion “reparations loan” to Ukraine using profits and eventually principal from frozen Russian central-bank assets. That package still needs unanimous approval from all 27 member states. Hungary is already sharpening its veto, Belgium is nervous about Euroclear liability, and a full-blown corruption circus right now would give every skeptical finance minister the perfect excuse to hit the brakes.
So the same EU that spent years lecturing Ukraine that NABU’s independence is non-negotiable is now, according to these reports, sending the exact opposite signal when the probe starts circling people uncomfortably close to Bankova Street.
Classic realpolitik: Anti-corruption is a sacred principle… until it threatens the next giant aid tranche. Then suddenly “stability” and “de-escalation of the investigation” become the buzzwords.
