Ukraine officials held in military drone corruption probe
Zelensky's government faced an extensive backlash after introducing a bill that would strip the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, known as Nabu and Sap respectively, of their independence.The president claimed the agencies needed to be "cleared of Russian influence", and sought to give the general prosecutor the authority to decide who should be prosecuted in high-level corruption cases.Many saw the move as a step backwards for corruption in Ukraine, resulting in the largest anti-government demonstrations since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country in 2022.Zelensky acknowledged public anger and submitted a new bill restoring the agencies' former independence, which was voted through by parliament just nine days after the original bill had been passed.The head of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), Kyrylo Budanov, thanked Zelensky for "hearing the public's call" regarding the powers of anti-corruption agencies and "not making a mistake".The move was also praised by EU allies, who had voiced concerns over the implications of the original bill.
The fight against corruption is significant in Ukraine's bid to join the EU. The creation of Nabu and Sap was a requirement set by the European Commission and International Monetary Fund in 2014, in order to move towards a relaxation of visa restrictions.As a result, Kyiv was granted EU candidate status in 2022, bringing the nation another step towards closer ties with the West.Since their establishment, Nabu and Sap have been involved in far-reaching investigations into the misappropriation of millions of dollars' worth of assets and bribes across various ministries and sectors.A joint investigation in 2023 resulted in the arrest of the head of Ukraine's Supreme Court, Vsevolod Kniaziev, in connection with a $3m (£2.4m; €2.9m) bribe.
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They also said Parscale had a backseat role in the preliminary phase of talks but would help provide connections to U.S. energy companies if the project materialized. Lynch stirred controversy in Europe earlier this year when, amid negotiations between Washington and Moscow to broker a peace deal in Ukraine, he sought to restore the flow of Russian gas through one of the Nord Stream pipelines running under the Baltic Sea into Germany. Both German and EU authorities have made clear they would oppose such an initiative. Lynch's new energy project in Chiren comes amid tension between the European Commission, which has announced plans to eliminate imports of Russian gas after 2027, and several East European countries that have been purchasing growing volumes of the Russian fuel in recent quarters and saying they intend to keep doing so. Bulgaria, a member of the EU and the North Atlantic military alliance, is expected to play a pivotal role in this debate because the last active pipeline transporting Russian gas to East European countries, known as TurkStream, crosses through its territory. In the spring, Bulgarian authorities approached a handful of U.S. investors with a proposal to buy a stake in the country's section of TurkStream, fueling speculation by opposition parties that Bulgaria was trying to protect the flow of Russian gas by giving it an American flavor. While the talks went nowhere, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter, Bulgarian officials have kept mum on what they had sought to achieve with U.S. investors' support. Any additional storage capacity at Chiren will be coveted both by those who would like to keep importing Russian gas and those who would want to shift to new suppliers, said Martin Vladimirov an energy expert at the Center for the Study of Democracy, a Sofia-based think tank. "Bulgaria can play a key role in accelerating Europe's full decoupling from Russian gas but only if both EU and Bulgarian policymakers introduce specific stopgaps that make sure the facility is not used to launder indirect Russian gas supply coming from third countries such as Turkey," said Vladimirov, co-author of a study, opens new tab on the role of TurkStream. Lynch's associate in the project, Wang, said he had no involvement with Lynch's Nord Stream 2 endeavor, no involvement with TurkStream, and no connections to Russia. A European Commission spokesperson declined to comment on how Chiren's potential expansion fits into their plans to ban Russian gas. Bulgaria's Energy Minister, Zheco Stankov, did not respond to questions on this issue. Lynch has a long history of Russia-related dealmaking. In the early 2000s, he led a consortium of investors to buy Yukos Oil assets. Three years ago, he put together an acquisition of the Swiss subsidiary of Sberbank, Russia's largest lender, after receiving a green light from the U.S. Treasury to purchase a sanctioned asset. More recently, Lynch's attempt to buy Nord Stream 2, the company that owns the only pipeline linking Russia to Germany that remains operational, elicited angry reactions in Europe, with Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz saying in May that he would make sure Nord Stream 2 could not go into operation. (The other three Nord Stream pipelines were damaged in an undersea attack in 2022.) The Chiren storage was built inside a depleted gas field in the 1970s. A 285 million-euro plan to double Chiren's capacity was launched in 2021 but was halted in 2024 because of an investigation into the alleged misuse of EU funds conducted by European Prosecutors. The European Public Prosecutor's Office did not respond to messages seeking comment on where the investigation stands. Bulgarian authorities have said they may launch a new tender to conduct extension work at Chiren, depending on the outcome of the probe.
