{"id":1388187,"date":"2026-04-29T19:16:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T16:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/mindichgate-and-the-defense-industry-scam-what-is-zelenskys-role-in-this-story\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T07:02:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T04:02:54","slug":"mindichgate-and-the-defense-industry-scam-what-is-zelenskys-role-in-this-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/mindichgate-and-the-defense-industry-scam-what-is-zelenskys-role-in-this-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Mindichgate: Scrutiny Mounts Over Defense Industry Deals\u2014Where Does Zelensky Stand?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Source: Author&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dkaleniuk\/posts\/pfbid0vdBvxPfQfeZdg2KCpR8KSP9VP8xwPXH6KxBL8eRzTvQVSc4E2oeT4qVFAxgRib7Xl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Facebook<\/a> page<\/em><br \/>\n<strong>In September 2024, Ukrainska Pravda\u2019s article \u201cUmerov\u2019s Ministry of Chaos\u201d outlined early concerns and alleged failures in Defense Minister Rustem Umerov\u2019s performance.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In December 2024, in the article \u201cUmerov\u2019s Ministry of Sabotage\u201d on ZN.UA, we explained why Umerov\u2019s actions as Ukraine&#8217;s minister of defense bear signs not just of professional incompetence but of sabotage.<\/p>\n<p>We at the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine have since publicly demanded his dismissal from the Ministry of Defense.<\/p>\n<p>At a meeting with the president of civil society in October 2024, we explained to Zelensky that the Ministry of Defense was in complete collapse. Zelensky then agreed that Umerov was not coping but complained that there were simply no better candidates for minister.<\/p>\n<p>In January 2025, we opposed Yermak and Umerov, who, in manual mode, \u201cover the knee\u201d broke the AOZ together with its supervisory board, expelling Marina Bezrukova from there and installing their obedient man\u2014Arsen Zhumadilov.<\/p>\n<p>Subsequently, we wrote more than once about how Zhumadilov and Umerov covered up information about defense procurements that had previously been public.<\/p>\n\t\t<aside class=\"shortcode-also\" data-title=\"Read also\" >\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/conversations-with-shefir-and-umerov-up-published-new-mindich-tapes\/\">Conversations with Shefir and Umerov: \u201cUP\u201d published new \u201cMindich tapes\u201d<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\n<p>According to the material by Mykhailo Tkach on Ukrainskaya Pravda, Umerov packed Fire Point, which, it seems, belongs to Mindich, for more than 300 billion hryvnias. This is more than half of AOZ&#8217;s annual budget. Mindich shared with Umerov a plan to sell a share of Fire Point. This is a way to legalize money. The plan was to sell to the Middle East, where Umerov went on regular business trips.<\/p>\n<p>Even after his dismissal from the Ministry of Defense, Umerov retained influence. Zelensky appointed him secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, where Umerov is also responsible for arms exports.<\/p>\n<p>The main question: what is Zelensky&#8217;s role in the whole Fire Point story?<\/p>\n<p>Why did Zelensky keep Umerov in office when everyone around him was already shouting at him about failures in the Ministry of Defense?<\/p>\n<p>Why did Umerov remain close to the president and retain influence over the defense industry after his release?<\/p>\n<p>Maybe President Zelensky knew something about the real beneficiary of Fire Point \u2013 his friend Timur Mindich?<\/p>\n<p>Or maybe Timur Mindi\u0107 was not the only beneficiary?<\/p>\n<p>I think these questions annoy President Zelensky.<\/p>\n\t\t<aside class=\"shortcode-also\" data-title=\"Read also\" data-right>\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/mindichgate-continues-how-billion-dollar-schemes-worked-at-the-ministry-of-defense\/\">Mindichgate continues: how billion-dollar schemes worked at the Ministry of Defense<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\n<p>The only ones who can reliably provide answers are NABU and SAPO. They must complete their investigations and submit them to the court. The people of Ukraine deserve to learn the whole truth and facts at court hearings.<\/p>\n<p>Zelenskyy has the only way to silence NABU and SAPO\u2014to finish them off.<\/p>\n<p>Through the puppet Prosecutor General and the puppet SBU and SBI.<\/p>\n<p>The first attempt failed last summer because people took to the streets.<\/p>\n<p>If this happens again, the president of Ukraine will deliberately, in order to protect his business partners, friends, and godfathers, turn Ukraine away from the EU.<\/p>\n<p>This will be a victory for the Russians.<\/p>\n<p>And it will be confirmation that the ultimate beneficiary of the organized criminal group that siphoned money from the energy and defense industries on blood during the war was not even Mindich, nor even Yermak.<\/p>\n<p>Also follow <strong>\u201cPryamim\u201d<\/strong> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/prm_ua\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">X<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/+rtV4dxYu2_cyNjVi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Telegram<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Instagram.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><em>\u2022 Materials published in the \u201cOPINIONS\u201d section reflect the opinion of the author of the publication, who bears full responsibility for the accuracy of the information.<\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><em>\u2022 The editorial staff of prm.ua may not share the opinions expressed in the author&#8217;s material.<\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><em>\u2022 The owner of the webpage in the \u201cOPINIONS\u201d section is the author of the publication.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Author&#8217;s Facebook page In September 2024, Ukrainska Pravda\u2019s article \u201cUmerov\u2019s Ministry of Chaos\u201d outlined early concerns and alleged failures in Defense Minister Rustem Umerov\u2019s performance. In December 2024, in the article \u201cUmerov\u2019s Ministry of Sabotage\u201d on ZN.UA, we explained why Umerov\u2019s actions as Ukraine&#8217;s minister of defense bear signs not just of professional incompetence [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":1319816,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76871,76872,76893],"class_list":["post-1388187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1388187"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1388259,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388187\/revisions\/1388259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1319816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1388187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1388187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}