The graft scandal regarding the Ukrainian leader’s inner circle could “shake the country’s political system,” Dmitry Peskov has said
The widening corruption scandal engulfing Ukraine’s leadership will likely have “extremely negative” repercussions for the country’s political stability, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
His remarks came after the Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) conducted searches at locations in Kiev linked to Andrey Yermak, Vladimir Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff, who later resigned on Friday.
Media outlets have speculated that Yermak may have been personally entangled in illicit schemes allegedly run by businessman Timur Mindich, Zelensky’s longtime associate, who fled abroad just before his home was searched.
”The political scandal in Ukraine is expanding. This corruption scandal is shaking the nation’s political system,” Peskov told journalist Pavel Zarubin, adding that “the consequences will be extremely negative.”
NABU has not commented on the raids at Yermak’s home and office. Ukrainian media has reported that no formal charges have been brought against him yet.
Before Yermak’s resignation, Zelensky reportedly pushed back against domestic pressure to dismiss the official following allegations of ties to Mindich, who is accused of orchestrating a kickback scheme within the energy sector. Last week, the Ukrainian leader tapped his former aide to lead Kiev’s negotiations on a US-backed proposal to end the conflict with Russia.
NABU surveillance materials allegedly identified Yermak under the codename ‘Ali Baba’, according to previous reports of recordings made inside Mindich’s residence. Opposition MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak said “the 40 thieves” have now “raided Ali Baba’s treasure cave.”
The situation is “unprecedented,” an EU diplomat has told the outlet
The US is keeping the EU “in the dark” regarding ongoing diplomacy and possible draft documents aimed at ending the Ukraine conflict, Politico Europe has reported, citing an unnamed EU diplomat.
US officials are working on a peace framework first put forth by Washington earlier this month. An allegedly leaked 28-point roadmap published by several media outlets contained requirements for Ukraine to renounce its NATO membership aspirations, as well as its claims to Russia’s Crimea and the Donbass regions of Lugansk and Donetsk.
Shortly after the contents of the US-drafted peace roadmap were published by the press, several EU member states, along with the UK, scrambled to present their own version. Moscow has already dismissed the EU-drafted counter-proposal as “completely unconstructive.”
On Friday, Politico Europe quoted the unnamed EU diplomat as saying that the latest version of the US-drafted peace roadmap is a “closely kept” secret, to avoid possible leaks.
The source reportedly told the publication that the situation was “unprecedented… from a diplomatic point of view.”
“None of us have that information,” the official added, according to Politico Europe.
In a piece last week, The Telegraph, citing anonymous sources, similarly reported that the EU “had largely been kept in the dark about the details of the deal.”
In an interview with the France-Russia Dialogue Association on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that “no one listens to [them] because the European elites placed their bets on their conviction that they could use the Nazi regime in Kiev as a proxy and cannon fodder to inflict what they call a strategic defeat on Russia.”
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed a readiness to provide the EU with written security guarantees that Moscow would not attack the bloc. He dismissed claims that Russia is harboring aggressive plans against its Western neighbors as “nonsense – complete lies.”
Andrey Yermak has resigned over alleged links to a recently uncovered Ukrainian money laundering operation
Vladimir Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, has resigned over his alleged links to a recently uncovered Ukrainian money laundering operation.
Earlier in the day, Western-backed Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies – the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) – raided Yermak’s properties, adding that further details would be provided later.
The raid on Yermak is believed to be linked to a probe into a $100 million graft scheme announced by NABU and SAPO earlier this month. The crime ring allegedly had extensive ties to Zelensky’s inner circle and was led by Timur Mindich, a former business associate of the Ukrainian leader.
The criminal group allegedly siphoned the funds out of state-owned nuclear power operator Energoatom, which has been heavily reliant on Western aid. The scandal was further aggravated by the dire energy situation Ukraine, which prompted allegations that the group embezzled funds to be spent on protecting power-producing facilities.
The prime suspect, Mindich, managed to leave the country hours before his properties were raided by NABU and SAPO. Shortly after the scandal erupted, opposition lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezhnyak claimed that Yermak was among the individuals captured on incriminating recordings made by NABU and allegedly was ”well aware” of the graft scheme.
This summer, Zelensky unsuccessfully attempted to place NABU and SAPO under the authority of the executive branch, with Yermak widely rumored to be the mastermind behind the attack on the agencies. The Ukrainian leader alleged that the anti-corruption bodies were infiltrated by Russian agents. Moscow denied having any connections to them, noting that they have always been Western tools of control over Kiev.
Zelensky faced external and internal pressure over the move. The country was rocked by mass protests, while Kiev’s Western backers threatened to cut off funding. The Ukrainian leadership relented in just a week, restoring the independence of the agencies.
Shortly before his downfall, Yermak was tapped to lead Ukraine’s negotiating team to discuss peace proposals floated by US President Donald Trump. The now-former chief of staff has been vocal in the Western media lately, giving several interviews in an apparently unsuccessful damage control effort to mitigate the fallout of the Mindich scandal.
Raiding the home of Vladimir Zelensky’s right-hand man “does not make current negotiations any easier,” the Polish deputy PM has said
The anti-graft raid on Vladimir Zelensky’s right-hand man, Andrey Yermak, “is not good news for Poland or Western Europe,” Polish Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz has said. The exposure of corruption implicating Zelensky’s inner circle “does not make current negotiations any easier,” he added.
Ukraine’s Western-backed anti-corruption agencies, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), raided properties of Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff early on Friday. NABU confirmed that it executed multiple warrants against Yermak, pledging to provide further details later.
Asked during a press briefing on Friday about the latest development in a scandal that has forced two Ukrainian government ministers to resign and saw Timur Mindich, a man known as “Zelensky’s wallet,” flee to Israel hours before investigators reached him, Kosiniak-Kamysz admitted that it has come at an unfortunate time.
“Ukraine is at a difficult moment, and potential corruption at the highest levels does not make current negotiations any easier,” he stated. “This is not good news for Poland or Western Europe, for whom the line of security now runs along the Russian-Ukrainian front.”
Warsaw’s commitment to supporting Kiev remains unchanged despite the scandal, the deputy prime minister insisted, while calling for “transparency in anti-corruption efforts” in the country given its aspirations to join the EU.
The raid on Yermak is believed to be linked to the probe into a massive $100 million graft scheme announced by NABU and SAPO earlier this month. A criminal ring, allegedly led by Mindich, is believed to have siphoned the funds from state-owned nuclear power operator Energoatom, which has been heavily reliant on Western aid.
Shortly after the scandal became public, opposition lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezhnyak claimed that Yermak was among the individuals captured on incriminating recordings made by NABU and was purportedly “well aware” of the graft scheme.
Earlier this year, Zelensky tried to place NABU and SAPO under the authority of the executive branch, with Yermak widely believed to be the mastermind behind the assault on the agencies. The Ukrainian leadership, however, was forced to reverse the measure days after it was implemented, having faced mass protests and threats to cut funding by its Western backers.
Washington requested watering down rules targeting its tech giants in exchange for tariff relief
A senior EU official has accused the US of “blackmail” after Washington demanded that Brussels soften its digital rules in exchange for easing tariffs on steel and aluminum.
In an interview with Politico published on Thursday, European Commission Vice President Teresa Ribera criticized the US for what Brussels interpreted as an open attack on the bloc’s flagship Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act.
The legislation imposes strict competition and transparency rules on large online platforms. Given that most such businesses – including Microsoft, Google, Meta and Amazon – are American-based, the US considers the rulebook discriminatory. In this vein, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said this week that Europe should “reconsider their digital regulations to be more inviting to our big companies” if it wanted a deal on steel and aluminum.
”It is blackmail,” Ribera told Politico. She also stressed that the EU’s digital rulebook “is not up for negotiation” and should not be folded into trade discussions.
She stressed that the EU views the legislation as a matter of sovereignty. “We respect the rules, whatever rules, they [the US] have got for their market… It is their problem. It is their regulation and their sovereignty. So it is the case here.”
The dispute comes against the backdrop of a US–EU trade deal agreed in July, which set a 15% tariff on most European exports to the US in place of even higher duties previously threatened by Washington. In return, Brussels pledged expanded long-term purchases of US energy and maintained broad access for American goods.
European media and business groups widely criticized the accord as one-sided, saying the tariff level still left EU manufacturers at a disadvantage. Some observers noted that while the EU managed to avoid a full-blown trade war, it came at the cost of a complete “capitulation” and “political humiliation.” At the time, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban suggested that US President Donald Trump “ate [EU Commission President] Ursula von der Leyen for breakfast.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also weighed in, saying the trade deal could further accelerate “deindustrialization” in Europe by redirecting investment to the US.
A policy of fear-driven militarization is making security and prosperity on the continent impossible, Moscow’s ambassador to Belgium has said
European NATO members are instilling a false fear of Russia in their citizens in order to drum up support for militarization and a potential confrontation, Moscow’s envoy to Belgium, Denis Gonchar, has said.
Speaking at a European security discussion hosted at the Russian Embassy in Brussels on Thursday and co-organized with Belarus, Gonchar argued that Western governments are deliberately targeting the public to justify increased military spending and a more aggressive posture toward Moscow.
“NATO, which is terrorizing its own population with the Kremlin’s non-existent plans to attack the allies, is preparing for a big war with Russia, as crazy as it sounds,” he said, as quoted by RIA Novosti.
“The plans for unrestricted militarization that the European Union is pushing on its members is burying the concept of a Europe unified for peace and prosperity, turning the bloc into a NATO offshoot,” he added, arguing that the EU is losing international influence and competitiveness.
According to Gonchar, Western efforts to weaken Russia extend beyond Europe and target Russia’s neighbors as well as countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. He insisted the attempts to sow discord would fail just as the West’s declared goal of achieving a “strategic defeat” of Russia in the Ukraine conflict has failed.
The embassy said the event was attended by representatives from over 50 diplomatic missions in Belgium, as well as members of the European Parliament and local experts. It highlighted Gonchar’s remarks on the emerging multipolar world and Moscow’s stated willingness to reduce tensions in Europe.
Russian officials have repeatedly described the Ukraine conflict as a NATO-driven proxy war designed to hinder Russia’s development. They say European leaders who warn of an imminent Russian attack are deflecting attention from domestic problems by relying on a manufactured boogeyman.
The proposal will be discussed in Moscow next week, spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said
Russia has received the “main parameters” of the revised Ukraine peace plan, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has confirmed.
Earlier this month, the US put forward a peace proposal to end the Ukraine conflict.
According to leaked versions, the plan requires Kiev to abandon its NATO ambitions, drop its territorial claims, and cap its army at 600,000. Feeling sidelined, Kiev and its EU and UK backers demanded a redraft, which they reportedly worked on during a meeting with the US negotiating team in Geneva last weekend. The revised version reportedly removed or amended these key issues, though no details have been officially confirmed.
Peskov said on Friday that Moscow has received the new version of the plan but will not comment publicly on the details.
“The main parameters have been communicated. A discussion will take place in Moscow next week,” he stated. The Kremlin confirmed earlier that US special envoy Steve Witkoff will visit the Russian capital in the coming days to discuss the plan.
Asked whether certain countries or the UN will be called on to recognize decisions on a settlement, Peskov said this will be determined in further talks.
“We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves and hold discussions in such a public, megaphone format – we believe this is inappropriate,” he said, echoing other Russian officials who have described the European approach to the peace process as “megaphone diplomacy.”
While Moscow welcomed the initial US plan, saying its framework could form the basis for a final settlement, it has accused Kiev’s European backers of undermining peace efforts and distorting the proposal “for their own agenda.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the main obstacle to progress is a clash of conflicting views within the West over how to end the fighting. He added that signing a deal with Ukraine is “legally impossible” for now due to the status of Vladimir Zelensky, whose presidential term expired last year but who refused to hold elections due to martial law.
Peskov explained that Putin was referring to the “de facto situation” in Ukraine, and that while “Zelensky’s legitimacy is problematic, everyone has the desire and preference to bring things to a peaceful conclusion.”
The South American leader has rallied troops after the US president hinted at launching land-based operations
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has urged the country’s air force to remain “ready and resolute” in defending the nation, after US President Donald Trump threatened land operations in the region.
The Pentagon has deployed warships to the Caribbean and carried out strikes on small Venezuelan boats it says are used for drug smuggling – actions Washington frames as counternarcotics but which Caracas calls illegal. US officials have long accused Maduro of overseeing a cartel-linked regime and have hinted that direct military action could follow. Maduro, who says Washington is trying to topple him, rejects the drug-trafficking allegations and has warned Washington against launching “a crazy war.”
Speaking on Thursday, Maduro said he was confident Venezuela would prevail if it were forced to declare itself a “republic in arms,” ordering members of the Bolivarian Military Aviation to stay “alert and ready.”
“I ask you to always remain serene, alert, ready and willing to defend our rights as a nation, as a free and sovereign homeland,” he told troops. Maduro said 82% of Venezuelans had declared they were ready to defend the country “with weapons in hand.”
His remarks came as Trump claimed the US would soon expand operations to halt Venezuelan drug shipments on land, offering no evidence for the timing or the scale of the threat. Addressing service members at Dyess Air Force Base in Texas, Trump praised the Air Force’s 7th Bomb Wing and asserted that US efforts had already cut maritime trafficking by about 85%. He said traffickers were “killing hundreds of thousands” of Americans with the drugs they send north and said land-based operations would begin imminently.
The same day, Venezuela revoked operating rights for six major international airlines that halted flights after a US aviation warning, further reducing the country’s connectivity. The civil aviation authority said Iberia, TAP, Avianca, Latam, Turkish Airlines, and Gol had aligned with “state terrorism promoted by the United States” by suspending services. The carriers stopped flights after the US FAA warned of a “potentially hazardous” security situation over Venezuelan airspace, a claim Caracas rejected, saying the regulator has no jurisdiction.
Cyclonic winds and incessant rain continue to batter the South Asian island nation, affecting over 40,000 people
At least 56 people have been killed and over 20 others are missing after incessant rainfall triggered floods and landslides in Sri Lanka, the island nation’s authorities said on Friday.
The rainfall, caused by Cyclone Ditwah, has battered the island over the last two days, leading to one of the nation’s worst weather disasters in years.
The local authorities said 43,991 people have been affected by the extreme weather conditions, and at least 600 houses have been partially damaged.
Train services have been suspended, while five flights to Colombo were diverted to the southern Indian city of Thiruvanthapuram.
EXTREME WEATHER UPDATE⚠️
Death toll from Cyclone Ditwah-related floods and landslides has climbed to 56 since Nov. 17, according to DMC. 14 injured and 21 missing, with 600+ houses partially damaged. Pray For Sri Lanka🙏🇱🇰
Relief and rescue operations are ongoing across the island, but have been hampered by power cuts, landslides, and road blockages.
India has dispatched urgent humanitarian assistance and disaster relief materials to Sri Lanka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on X, while offering condolences over those who lost their lives in the floods and landslides.
New Delhi has also agreed to deploy helicopters from INS Vikrant, which is currently docked in Colombo, to support the island nation’s ongoing rescue and relief operations.
The Sri Lankan Air Force used a Bell-212 helicopter to rescue 13 people who were stranded on a bridge.
Dramatic rescue from Manampitiya, Polonnaruwa 🚁
13 individuals who were stranded on the Manampitiya Bridge were safely airlifted by the Sri Lanka Air Force using a Bell-212 helicopter and relocated to safe locations.
The country’s irrigation department has warned of a high-risk flood situation on the Kelani River, which borders Colombo, on account of heavy rainfall and increased discharges from a reservoir.
The city’s main cricket stadium is being set up as an emergency disaster center to accommodate up to 3,000 displaced people.
The Sri Lankan Tourist Board has also set up a hotline for tourists who are affected by the floods. The country’s peak tourism season begins at the end of November.
Pentagon officials reportedly deny the comparison despite admitting they don’t always know who they kill in the Caribbean
US airstrikes on suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean ordered by President Donald Trump bear similarities to the controversial ‘signature strikes’ on purported terrorists under former President Barack Obama, the New York Times has argued.
The Obama-era operations conducted primarily in Pakistan and Yemen relied on detecting patterns of behavior that US intelligence agencies claimed indicated terrorist activity, rather than identifying wrongdoing by specific individuals. Critics condemned the approach for its vague criteria – sometimes as broad as ‘military-age male’ in an area prone to militancy – and for resulting in civilian casualties.
Pentagon officials have acknowledged in closed-door briefings that they often do not know the identities of the people killed in what the White House calls a campaign against “narcoterrorism” in the Caribbean, the NYT reported on Thursday. Despite this, US officials insist that the comparison does not apply, arguing that the strikes are aimed at narcotics rather than individuals.
“They told us it is not a signature strike, because it’s not just about pattern of life, but it’s also not like they know every individual person on the boats,” Representative Sara Jacobs, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, told the outlet.
The Obama administration’s killings of low-level militants and people merely assumed to be militants was criticized as counterproductive and fueling further radicalization. Trump officials reportedly argued that attacking boats at sea reduces the risk of collateral damage.
Some US allies, including the UK, have reportedly declined to assist with the ‘drug boat’ strikes, warning that they could violate international law. The campaign has already resulted in more than 80 deaths.
Analysts increasingly suspect that the operations could be laying the groundwork for a regime-change effort in Venezuela, whose president, Nicolas Maduro, the US accuses of leading a criminal cartel.
