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Zelenskyy Fires Top Aide Amid Corruption Probe and Calls for Wartime Elections

evening · · thread: Civilians Face Shelter Shortages in Kyiv as EU Restricts Flight for Military Age Men

23 sources across 16 countries

Who reported this

  • Der Spiegel Germany · Centre-left · ~50% staff-owned
  • Sueddeutsche Zeitung Germany · Centre-left · Sudwestdeutsche Medien Holding
  • Deutsche Welle Germany · Centre · Public · German federal public-law corporation
  • Frankfurter Allgemeine Germany · Centre-right · FAZIT-Stiftung (foundation)
  • ANSA Italy · Centre · Publisher cooperative
  • Corriere della Sera Italy · Centre-right · RCS MediaGroup (Cairo Communication)
  • Meduza Latvia · Centre-left · Crowdfunded; exiled Russian newsroom
  • Novaya Gazeta Europe Latvia · Centre-left · Crowdfunded; exiled Russian newsroom
  • Financial Times United Kingdom · Centre · Nikkei Inc.
  • Reuters United Kingdom · Centre · Thomson Reuters Corporation
  • CNN United States · Centre-left · Warner Bros. Discovery
  • Bloomberg United States · Centre · Bloomberg L.P. (Michael Bloomberg)
  • La Nacion Argentina · Centre-right · Saguier family
  • Politico Europe Belgium · Centre · Axel Springer SE
  • Folha de S.Paulo Brazil · Centre · Grupo Folha (Frias family)
  • La Tercera Chile · Centre-right · Copesa (Saieh family)
  • France 24 France · Centre · Public · France Medias Monde (French state holding)
  • South China Morning Post Hong Kong · Centre-right · Alibaba Group
  • Telex Hungary · Centre · Reader-funded, staff-owned
  • Business Day South Africa · Centre-right · Arena Holdings (Lebashe Investment Group)
  • El Pais Spain · Centre-left · Grupo PRISA
  • Neue Zuercher Zeitung Switzerland · Centre-right · Dispersed shareholders, no controlling stake
  • Kyiv Independent Ukraine · Centre · Reader-funded, journalist-owned

What the colours mean

  • Left
  • Centre-left
  • Centre
  • Centre-right
  • Right
  • A hatched block means the outlet is affiliated with, or controlled by, a state.

Political lean describes where an outlet sits within the politics of its own country. It is never a position on a single global scale.

Political lean is comparable inside one country and not across them, which is why the bar groups by country first. Publicly funded broadcasters are not marked as state-linked.

The owner of each outlet is listed as a matter of record, not as a judgement about the outlet.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Iryna Mudra, the deputy head of his office, on Wednesday. The firing followed a large scale anti corruption operation conducted by the National Anti Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti Corruption Prosecutor Office (SAPO). The investigation, code named Operation Forrest Gump, targets an alleged criminal organization involved in laundering approximately 150 million hryvnias, or 3.4 million US dollars. Investigators allege the funds were used to pay bail for a defendant in a separate major corruption case involving the state owned nuclear power company Energoatom. The probe also involves lawmaker Vadym Stolar, former lawmaker Maksym Mykytas, and officials from the state owned Sense Bank.

These events coincide with a significant internal challenge to Zelenskyy's leadership. Former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who was dismissed in July, released a video calling for the country to find a legal and safe mechanism to hold elections during the war. Fedorov argued that democracy must not be held hostage by Russia and criticized a systemic crisis of governance and corruption within the state. His call for elections breaks a long standing political taboo, as Ukrainian law currently prohibits elections under martial law. Some reports indicate that Fedorov's dismissal previously triggered street protests in Kyiv.

Simultaneously, the Ukrainian Parliament approved Yevhenii Khmara as the new Minister of Defense. Khmara, a former high ranking official within the SBU national security agency, was approved by a vote of 312 to 2. While some officials praised his experience with technological combat operations, others expressed concern that his move to the defense ministry was a loss for the intelligence services.

Outlets with a center lean generally describe these events as a deepening of Zelenskyy's domestic woes. Center left sources emphasize the corruption probe as a challenge to the president's administration. Center right sources focus more heavily on Fedorov's challenge to Zelenskyy's authority and the potential for a governance crisis.

How each side framed it

Centre-left
Highlighted the corruption investigations and the pressure they place on the presidential office.
Centre
Framed the events as a series of domestic setbacks and deepening woes for the president.
Centre-right
Focused on the internal challenge to Zelenskyy's leadership and the potential for a systemic governance crisis.

Sources

100% of the statements in this article were traced back to the source articles listed above.