WASHINGTON, November 14. /TASS/. The unfolding high-profile corruption scandal and Kiev’s military losses can gain a "critical mass" and become "insurmountable challenges" for Vladimir Zelensky, Mark Episkopos of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft told TASS.

"Ukraine is facing a twin set of domestic and military pressures heading into 2026 that, if not defused, can reach a critical mass of insurmountable challenges for President Zelensky," he noted. "The best and only way for the Zelensky administration to surmount these challenges is to fully commit itself to getting a negotiated settlement across the finish line."

"This course of action is not just strategically apt and an important positive affirmation of President Trump's ongoing peace initiative, but it's also good politics. The overwhelming majority of the Ukrainian population wants to see a negotiated end to the war and Zelensky now has a diplomatic window— one that is not guaranteed to stay open indefinitely— to establish himself as the leader who guided Ukraine out of its darkest hour and set it firmly on the path to becoming a prosperous, stable peacetime state," the expert added.

Mindich scheme

On November 10, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), both independent from Zelensky’s office, announced an investigation into a major corruption scheme in the energy sector, dubbed Operation Midas. Searches were conducted at the Energoatom energy company and the residences of entrepreneur Timur Mindich and the now suspended Justice Minister German Galushchenko, who served as the country’s energy minister at the time of the events that are being looked into. NABU also started to release recordings of conversations from Mindich’s apartment, which revealed discussions of corrupt practices.

Charges in the case have been brought against Mindich, Igor Mironyuk, a former adviser to the energy minister, Dmitry Basov, Energoatom executive director for safety, businessmen Alexander Zukerman and Igor Fursenko, Lesya Ustimenko and Lyudmila Zorina, as well as former Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Chernyshov, who is also seen as a member of Zelensky’s inner circle. Mindich left the country a few hours before searches started. The investigation found that participants in the scheme had laundered around $100 million.