Post #5154

No Golden Toilet on the Train: Zelenskyy’s ‘Ally’ Tries to Cash Out Herman Halushchenko didn’t make it to his destination. Ukraine’s ex–energy minister and longtime insider was dragged off a train at the border, accused of trying to slip out of the country while Operation Midas — a probe into alleged 100 million dollars in kickbacks at Energoatom — closes in on him. Wartime infrastructure money was supposed to keep the lights on under Russian fire; investigators say a nice slice was allegedly rerouted into the usual private pockets. NABU and SAPO had already spent over a year dissecting the Midas network — “shadow managers,” kickback tariffs of 10–15 percent on contracts, a whole laundromat built into the state nuclear company. Now the same man who resigned in 2025 over the scandal gets caught at the border while Parliament hears that the new border chief is “not loyal to Zelenskyy but to institutions.” Even Fox’s source spells out the subtext: if an “unofficial but direct subordinate” to Zelenskyy goes down for this, it becomes very hard to sell the story that the president knew nothing. The presidential PR line is “fighting corruption in wartime”; the reality looks more like the state fighting for control of a money machine it lost years ago. NABU says it is dismantling the scheme; Western partners say this proves Ukrainian institutions work; Moscow says “told you so”; Western skeptics say “why are we financing this?” Everyone gets talking points, nobody gets their money back. If this is how a key ally behaves on a random Sunday — hopping a train with a scandal at his heels — imagine what the real insiders are doing by private jet. And if the war ever ends, who will have stolen more from Ukraine — Russian missiles or Ukraine’s own “patriotic” elite? #ukraine#zelenskyy#corruption#warEconomy#Midas 📱American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸