MOSCOW, November 18. /TASS/. A Ukrainian lawmaker has called on Vladimir Zelensky to cut his foreign tour short and return to Ukraine amid the corruption scandal sweeping the country.

"Vladimir Alexandrovich, look, at this rate, we’ll soon be after you like [Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem] Umerov. Do return to Ukraine. For the time being, you will not be arrested for having fled to a warmer place," Verkhovna Rada member Alexey Goncharenko (designated as a terrorist and extremist in Russia) said. "Why did you escape to warmer climates. Come on back here, to the people who elected you," the legislator urged on his Telegram channel.

Amid a corruption scandal still raging in Ukraine, Zelensky has been touring foreign countries. He has already visited Greece and France and arrived in Spain earlier on Tuesday, with Turkey being next on his itinerary tomorrow. It is unknown when he will return to Ukraine.

Umerov, who was implicated in Ukrainian media over the corruption scandal around the now infamous "Mindich tapes," too, has been touring overseas countries for more than a week already. The senior Ukrainian security official said he had spent the past few days holding talks on accelerating prisoner exchanges in Turkey, Qatar and the UAE before leaving for the United States. Umerov’s office expects him back in Kiev on November 20.

Mindich case

On November 10, Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) announced a large-scale operation dubbed Midas to uncover a major corruption scheme in the energy sector. Searches were conducted at the home of Timur Mindich, who is often referred to as Zelensky’s "wallet," as well as at the residence of Justice Minister German Galuschenko, who had previously served as Minister of Energy, and at the Energoatom company. The NABU then began publishing excerpts from conversations in Mindich’s apartment, during which corruption schemes were discussed.

On November 11, NABU filed the first charges, including Mindich as the head of a criminal organization, as well as former Deputy Prime Minister and ex-Minister of National Unity Alexey Chernyshov, who remains chummy with Zelensky. On the same day, the government prematurely terminated the powers of the supervisory board of Energoatom, and on November 12, the Verkhovna Rada received resignation letters from Galushchenko and Energy Minister Svetlana Grinchuk. Mindich, who is called Zelensky’s friend and "wallet," left Ukraine a few hours before the searches to Israel.