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Former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko
The former prime minister will have given orders to deputies about votes, in a prolonged scheme. “Absurd”, says the deputy.
Yulia Tymoshenko she was Prime Minister of Ukraine in 2005 and, later, between 2007 and 2010. She was the first woman to lead the Kiev Government.
Now it is being accused of bribes. In the midst of a (new) anti-corruption investigation in Ukraine, she is accused of having offered bribes to members of the Ukrainian parliament.
This Tuesday there were raids by national anti-corruption bodies: National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO).
According to these two offices, there were “illegal benefits on the part of Ukrainian deputies to approve decisions on bills in parliament in December 2025”.
The suspect, Yulia Tymoshenko, “started individual negotiations with deputies about the introduction of a systematic mechanism to provide illegal benefits in exchange for loyal behavior during voting.”
These would not be one-off agreements. It was actually a “regular cooperation mechanism that provided for advance payments and was designed for a long period”, quote or
“The deputies received instructions about how to vote and, in some cases, on how to abstain or not participate in the vote”, adds the statement.
NABU and SAPO released recordings of the alleged agreements and images of Tuesday night’s search. Despite the blurred faces, one of the people actually looks like Tymoshenko.
One example of the scheme: Tymoshenko instructed a deputy to vote in favor of dismissing Vasyl Malyuk, director of Ukraine’s security service, Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal and Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.
The deputy has already confirmed that there was a raid – without a warrant, she claims. But she assures that she is not guilty. The charges are “absurd” and it’s all a “big PR stunt.” The investigators found nothing, he guarantees.
“It appears that the elections are much closer than they seemed. And someone has decided to start eliminating political competitors”continued the former prime minister.
