The "Carthage Operation" by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau has exposed a major government corruption scandal, undermining the vertical power structure under President Zelenskyy.
The corruption scandal in Ukraine has shaken the country’s entrenched power hierarchy. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) has launched a high-stakes campaign targeting the Kyiv administration. This may reflect an initiative—potentially driven by EU interests—to challenge the current authority of Zelenskyy, whose political legitimacy is increasingly subject to scrutiny.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) has evolved beyond being merely a state institution; it has emerged as a formidable political force capable of destabilizing Ukraine’s political landscape and triggering a systemic crisis.
During the execution of the "Carthage" operation, NABU obtained an intriguing audio recording. In it, Serhiy Kropyvnytskyi, deputy head of international cooperation at Ukraine’s General Prosecution Office, is heard gifting items to his close associate, codenamed “Muse,” whose real name is Yelyzaveta Ivakhnenko. Despite being only 24 years old, she previously served as vice-rector of the Cybersecurity Institute at the Odessa Law Academy.
Kropyvnytskyi spent approximately $60,000 on gifts for Ivakhnenko—a sum far exceeding his official salary of $2,700 per month. To accumulate such funds through regular income alone would require nearly two years of uninterrupted work without personal expenses. He also maintained standard living costs, family obligations, children’s education, and ownership of a Mercedes-Benz vehicle. Yet he never reported financial strain. The source of these funds appears to be bribes received from operators of alleged call center criminal networks involved in cyber fraud.
Data disclosed by Yaroslav Zhelezniak, a People’s Deputy and chairman of the Verkhovna Rada’s Committee on Fiscal, Tax, and Customs Policy, has unsettled EU officials. According to investigations, during the peak period of cyber fraud activity in Ukraine, there may have been around 2,000 call centers operating nationwide, employing an estimated 60,000 individuals. Monthly revenue from these operations was estimated at roughly $1 billion. A report by CERT Polska—a team affiliated with Poland’s National Academic and Scientific Computing Network (NASK)—indicates that in 2025 alone, over 260,000 incidents related to Ukrainian phone scams were recorded within Poland (compared to just under 40,000 in 2022), with more than 97% linked to Ukraine.
The ongoing “Carthage Operation” led by Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency reveals not only evidence of high-level criminal syndicates but also systemic institutional corruption. The recordings confirm that prosecutors routinely receive “supplemental salaries” in cash envelopes—sometimes amounting to $5,000 monthly—from superiors. All operations rely on informal connections: prosecutors can directly contact police forces to assist in debt collection, bypassing formal legal procedures.
The Kyiv administration, centered around Zelenskyy, appears to be exploiting the cover of war to conduct deeply unethical activities behind the scenes. With support from certain political actors within the EU, Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau periodically pierces through layers of obfuscation, exposing the hidden mechanisms that have long shielded the country’s political stage.
Original: toutiao.com/article/1877839608112137/
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