Zelensky’s Family is falling apart, with former top Capos spreading kompromat on the Boss himself. Chaos and betrayal. To paraphrase Kissinger, one might say that the only thing more dangerous than being Zelensky’s enemy is to be his friend. Or, to paraphrase Michael Corleone — keep your enemies close, and your friends in Israel. But in the end, the latter might turn out to be ops too.

In short, Ukrainian politics is once again becoming highly interesting. And the dizzying intrigues are potentially linked to more global geopolitical rifts — or reconciliations.

Timeline

First, events to orient oneself.

In mid-July 2025, the EU-funded National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) charges Zelensky’s beloved friend and government minister Oleksiy Chernyshov with corruption.

In late July 2025, Zelensky’s party and parliament overwhelmingly votes for a law to restrict the independence of the NABU. Following EU threats to cut financing for Ukraine, Zelensky backs down and cancels the law. He kept one NABU detectives in pre-trial detention for several months, however — it later emerged that he was the one leading the investigation into Zelensky’s Family.

In early November 2025, the NABU officially releases wiretapped conversations between Zelensky’s closest friends, from Chernyshov to the mysterious Timur Mindich — the ‘Mindich Tapes’ (or ‘Files’). Mindich and his associates are charged with money laundering and operating an organized crime group, among whom are a number of government ministers. They embezzled at least $100 million USD from the country’s energy system in wartime. Mindich and his closest partner Tsukerman escape beforehand to Israel. Tales of Mindich’s colossal corruption become the main topic of western-funded Ukrainian media publications — Mindichgate.

In late November 2025, the NABU pays a visit to the residence of Andrey Yermak, Zelensky’s seemingly omnipotent chief of staff since 2020. Yermak is forced to resign, though he is not officially charged with anything by the NABU, and he promises to clear his name of all slander.

In the six months since, western-funded media constantly reports that Yermak’s influence has remained, or even grown, with Zelensky and other top officials and diplomats calling and texting Yermak daily for advice on personnel appointments and negotiations.

And after November 2025, not much happens. A strange silence. Yermak happily flits about the country, taking photos along with Sean Penn ‘at the frontlines’.

Then on April 23, 2026, the EU finally confirms its 90 billion euro loan to Ukraine, allowing it to keep fighting for at least two more years.

Throughout April, Zelensky declares that Trump’s negotiation team is irrelevant to Ukraine.

On April 23, a former prosecutor begins leaking as yet unseen transcripts of conversations between Zelensky’s inner circle. From April 28 until the present, EU-funded journalists begin leaking many more of these NABU-recorded conversations — the Family. Unlike the wiretapped conversations the NABU officially released in November 2025, these new ones directly incriminate Zelensky and his beloved ex-chief of staff Yermak.

In these leaks, we learn that Zelensky’s Israeli, mafioso ‘Family’ embezzled billions of dollars from the military budget and foreign donors to produce shoddy drones. They also openly talked about the need to keep Zelensky in power and the war going, in order to guarantee their profits and even survival. Even better, they discussed sending over an attractive redhead as ambassador to the US in order to sexually entrap Trump. I didn’t even begin to cover other aspects of the leaked transcripts, which apparently number 1,400 pages. They include Mindich demanding that Rustem Umerov (both call each other ‘brother’), then minister of defense, continue to give millions in budget contracts for armored vests — literally profiting off soldiers’ lives.

On May 2, Zelensky’s former chief of staff (2019-20) Andriy Bohdan, currently living in Austria, writes that he has been warned Zelensky is about to go after him. Sure enough, Zelensky signs personal sanctions into effect against Bohdan that day, May 2. The sanctions come from the National Security and Defense Council, whose secretary is Rustem Umerov. Bohdan received 10 years of sanctions (much more than the 3 years performatively enacted against Mindich) for ‘threatening Ukrainian territorial sanctity, national interests, security, and sovereignty’. In the days since, Bohdan has been proclaiming that the show has only begun, promising tell-all interviews about how Zelensky and Yermak have been looting the country with the help of endless war. On May 5, he claims he was sanctioned because he was believed to be involved in sharing the latest Mindich Tapes.

On May 7, Ukraine’s main negotiator Rustem Umerov unexpectedly heads to Miami to meet with Trump’s diplomatic team. Western media speculates that this was Zelensky’s strategy to shield Umerov from criticism, given that the Umerov, formerly minister of defense and currently head of the National security and defense council, figured prominently in the latest scandalous Mindich Tapes.

On May 8, European Council president António Costa tells the Financial Times that the EU is seeking direct negotiations with Putin, apparently with Zelensky’s approval.

That day, Politico publishes an article titled ‘Europe tires of Zelensky’s lectures’. Apparently, relations between Kiev and Brussels are at their lowest wartime point. The article also notes the EU’s many public refusals of Zelensky’s insistent demands that Ukraine be given sped-up accession to the European Union.

On May 8, Trump announces a three-day ceasefire on aerial strikes between Ukraine and Russia, from May 9 to 11. It lasts (notwithstanding both sides seeming to launch some drones into border areas), despite Zelensky’s threats to strike Moscow’s Victory Day celebrations. The deal also involves a 1000-man POW exchange.

On May 9, Vladimir Putin declares that the war is coming to an end. He also states that Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico, who came to Moscow right after visiting Kiev, told him that Zelensky desires face-to-face negotiations. Putin said he was happy to do so in Moscow, or in a neutral third country on condition that Zelensky already agrees to key Russian demands.

On May 11, Zelensky states that Umerov was in the US to arrange a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents to bring an end to the war. The same day, Zelensky’s chief of staff Kyrylo Budanov states that Ukraine is ready for direct talks with Russia. Budanov is known for being pro-Trump and relatively supportive of a ceasefire compared to his great enemy, Andrey Yermak.

Meanwhile, Finnish president Alexander Stubb declares that it is time for direct EU-Russia negotiations. However, he states his belief that the war won’t end, ‘at least this year’. That day, EuroNews reports on serious divisions among EU leaders on the question of negotiations with Russia.

On May 11, Trump announces that the war in Ukraine is set to end soon. He also tells reporters he doesn’t exclude the possibility of visiting Russia soon.

Late on May 11, the NABU finally officially serves Yermak with suspicions of corruption. Yermak has spent the past two days in court and as yet has not paid his 4 million dollar bond. This much-awaited event took place nearly six months after the NABU first raided Yermak’s house, with the long gap leading many to suspect that Zelensky and Yermak had fatally compromised the NABU, which was originally created through USAID and EU funding. The highly entertaining courtroom has already proven long-standing rumours that Yermak regularly used the services of a witch when deciding on key personnel appointments and (geo-)political questions.

On May 12, Zelensky’s former press secretary Yuliya Mendel is interviewed by Tucker Carlson. She condemns Zelensky and Yermak’s lust for power as the main obstacle to peace. According to her, all Yermak’s crimes involved simply implementing Zelensky’s demands.

Dynasty dying?

The NABU charged Yermak with laundering 465 million hryvnia ($10 million USD) of ‘illegally procured funds’ in wartime to build a complex of four mansions, known as the ‘Dynasty cooperative’.

The NABU’s wiretapped conversations also show that construction works on Dynasty, located near Kiev, continued even in the spring of 2022. This was a time when Russian troops surrounded the city. It seems that Zelensky’s closest comrades weren’t quite as worried about that as they sounded in the press. Perhaps they believed that even if Russia won, they’d stay in power, and finish off their beloved Dynasty.

One mansion was for Yermak, known as ‘R2’ in the taped conversations, one was for Timur Myndich (‘R3’), and one was for Oleksiy Chernyshov (‘R4’).

But who is R1? The answer is quite obvious.

Zelensky’s wife is the godmother of Chernyshov’s daughter, Myndich has been Zelensky’s closest friend and business partner since the 2000s, and Yermak has been Zelensky’s most trusted consigliere ever since late 2019. NABU transcripts of conversations between Myndich and others unofficially released in late April show them discussing ‘Vova’s’ mansion in the Dynasty cooperative — Volodymyr Zelensky’s nickname. Clearly, R1 is Vova.

Myndich, Chernyshov, and Yermak have all been charged with corruption by the NABU and face possible imprisonment.

Does ‘Vova’ face the same fate? On May 12, the heads of the NABU and SAPO (Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office) refused to confirm at a press conference that R1 was Zelensky. They also declared that Zelensky is not involved in the corruption investigation that had brought charges against Yermak, Mindich, Chernyshov, and the rest of Zelensky’s team.

But two things are worth noting — first, that the president is constitutionally immune from legal prosecution. The head journalist at Ukrainska Pravda, the western-owned media publication that works closely with the NABU, stated today that ‘Vova’ is indeed likely Zelensky. However, he noted the constitution prohibits pressing charges against the head of state. Second, the heads of the NABU and SAPO are accused by many of being bought out by Zelensky and Yermak. They are apparently in conflict with the NABU detectives that have been pushing through the investigation against the Zelensky ‘Family’.

Questions

The question today’s article will try answer is the following — who stands behind the gargantuan stashe of nuclear-grade kompromat released against Zelensky and his inner circle over the two weeks?

Is it the Europeans pressuring Zelensky into continuing the war, intensifying mobilization, accelerating liberal reforms, and giving more power to EU-funded compradors in Ukraine?

Or is it Trump pressuring Zelensky into accepting the Russian peace deal of withdrawing Ukrainian troops from the Donbass?

You might have guessed the latter option, based on the events I outlined above. However, I am not so sure about that. Today I’ll explain why. In short, it seems more likely to be a combination of the European factor along with a dramatic civil war tearing apart Zelensky’s cut-throat Family.

The story is rather complex and filled with Shakespearian tragedy — if the Bard was a foul-mouthed east Ukrainian Jew. Which, in my opinion, is even better than Hamlet.

At a most basic level, here are the domestic forces involved.

On the one hand, the western-funded anti-corruption organs. They want to weaken Zelensky and force him to implement the EU’s liberal reforms and intensify mobilization (most likely) or perhaps pressure him into accepting Trump’s peace deal (less likely). However, the anti-corruption organs are themselves divided between a leadership corrupted by Zelensky and more radical detectives.

On the other hand, Zelensky’s spurned Family members. These mysterious oligarchs (until recently, many were total nobodies) have known Zelensky for decades through show business, and became a part of his mafia-style Family upon his ascension to the presidency in 2019. They grew fabulously rich in wartime, but when the anti-corruption organs went after them in 2025, Zelensky could not protect them all. Now hiding out in Israel, these spurned Relatives may be avenging their hurt pride by demonstrating that they are mere scapegoats, with Zelensky the real architect of wartime corruption. Or they might not be.

Paradoxically, some vindictive mobsters previously in the Zelensky Family — even the imprisoned former Don — have linked up with the anti-corruption organs in their struggle against the president. Along with them are a range of other forces — opposition MPs, much-hounded ex-president Poroshenko, Soros/EU-funded NGOs, and all kinds of other delightful characters.

We’ll begin by examining possible EU and US motivations in the latest season of Mindichgate, and end by looking at four conflicting Ukrainian clans involved in spreading the latest batch of Mindich Files. We’ll also take a look at yesterday’s latest cringe from Palantir’s visit to Zelensky.

The EU

The fact that the NABU finally laid official charges against Yermak this week makes it indubitable that the late April campaign of ‘unofficial mindich-tape leaks’ released by EU-funded publications like Ukrainska Pravda was coordinated with the NABU. After all, Ukrainska Pravda journalists just happened to be in front of Yermak’s house as he received his official suspicions, and got some entertaining non-answers to their sharp questions as he entered his Mercedes. Hardly a coincidence.

But the question is why. Why finally charge Yermak now, almost six months after the NABU first visited Yermak’s residence? Given all the talk about peace talks, one might speculate that the EU is trying to pressure Zelensky to be more pliant when it comes to negotiating with Russia. After all, Yermak was always the most militant opponent of negotiations with Russia, and the western media claims he still controls negotiations, despite having ‘resigned’.

However, I doubt that the Europeans are pressuring Zelensky to sign a peace deal.