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Anti-corruption investigators have reportedly accused Yulia Tymoshenko, the prominent Ukrainian opposition figure and former prime minister, of organising a scheme to bribe MPs – said to include figures from Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s own party – to undermine him.
Tymoshenko rose to international prominence during Ukraine’s Orange Revolution in 2004 and was jailed in 2011 on politically motivated charges by her arch-rival Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Kremlin president, before being released during the Euromaidan protests.
A spokesperson for the specialised anti-corruption prosecutor’s office (Sapo) said on Wednesday that Tymoshenko had been charged after the offices of her Fatherland party were raided late on Tuesday night by officers from Sapo and the national anti-corruption bureau (Nabu).
Tymoshenko’s party holds 25 of the 450 seats in Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.
While Tymoshenko has not been formally identified, investigators briefed media in Ukraine over her involvement, while she released a statement denying any accusations.
It comes amid a recent series of high-profile corruption investigations that have swept up figures in Zelenskyy’s inner circle. Ukraine’s political turmoil has been stoked by growing expectations of elections should a ceasefire with Russia be reached, an idea encouraged by Zelenskyy himself.
The allegations against members of Zelenskyy’s inner circle have prompted an ongoing political reshuffle, even as the country has faced a crisis over recent sustained Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure.
According to reports in Ukraine, the allegations against Tymoshenko relate to the payment of bribes to politicians to vote with her party, including in votes to fire the head of the country’s security service and its defence minister, and to vote in favour of figures nominated by her.
According to an allegedly intercepted conversation between Tymoshenko and an unnamed MP released by investigators, she planned to use the Signal messaging app to relay instructions on votes, suggesting the aim was to “break the majority” in parliament enjoyed by Zelenskyy.
Tymoshenko issued a statement on Facebook denying any connection with the released audio. “I officially declare that the published audio recordings have nothing to do with me. I reject all accusations and I will prove they are groundlessness in court,” she said.
A video released by the anti-corruption agencies showed cash in US dollars being seized during Tuesday’s searches.
Tymoshenko confirmed the raids on her office in a post on Facebook in which she suggested the search was politically motivated. She said they had “nothing to do with law or legality” and they appeared to be linked to speculation about imminent national elections.
“It seems the elections are much closer than they appeared and someone has decided to start clearing out the competition,” Tymoshenko said. “They found nothing, so they just took my work phones, parliamentary documents and personal savings, all of which are fully declared in my official statement of assets. I categorically reject all the absurd accusations.”
Tymoshenko was one of the most prominent figures in Ukraine’s turbulent period of post-Soviet politics and sharply shifting political alliances. She became famous for her impassioned speeches against a rigged election claimed by Yanukovych in 2004 that led to the Orange Revolution.
After losing the 2010 presidential election to Yanukovych, she was jailed in 2011 for 30 months on what were largely seen as politically motivated corruption charges.
Tymoshenko was one of the most vocal supporters of a highly controversial bill last year – later withdrawn by Zelenskyy amid public and international outcry – that would have led to the dismantling of Sapo and Nabu, the two anti-corruption agencies now investigating her.
While the investigation is not related directly to corruption allegations against members of Zelenskyy’s party – involving allegations of money laundering and embezzlement at Energoatom, the state-run nuclear power company – it appears to relate to the political fallout from that scandal.
According to Nabu, Tymoshenko is alleged to have approached MPs for a “regular mechanism of cooperation that involved advance payments and was intended for a long-term period”, including instructions on how to vote.
That included an alleged instruction sent by Tymoshenko to an MP to vote for the firing of Vasyl Malyuk as head of Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, as well as the defence minister Denys Shmyhal and the digital transformation minister Mykhailo Fedorov.
The announcement comes a fortnight after Nabu said it had uncovered a criminal conspiracy involving MPs who received cash in exchange for parliamentary votes.
