Anti-corruption operation shakes high-ranking Ukrainian officials

Ukraine’s anti-corruption authorities reported this Wednesday on a special operation to dismantle a criminal organization, in the framework of which searches were carried out at the homes of a member of parliament and a high-ranking official in the Office of the President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) “are carrying out a special operation to dismantle a criminal organization that operated under the direction of a deputy and a former deputy of Ukraine, with the participation of high-ranking officials from the Office of the President of Ukraine and other individuals,” these agencies reported in a joint message on their Telegram accounts.

Operation «Forrest Gump»

Within the framework of the operation, named “Forrest Gump,” searches were carried out at the residences of Iryna Mudra, Deputy Head of the Office of the President and responsible, among other matters, for overseeing judicial reform and the creation of a Special Tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, and of deputy Vadim Stolar.

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The parliamentarian confirmed in a Facebook post the searches by the NABU at his home and assured that he is openly cooperating with the representatives of the anti-corruption authority.

“I am not putting any obstacles in the way of the work of law enforcement,” he added.

The anti-corruption authorities subsequently reported that during the searches they discovered a document containing a crisis communication plan regarding the activity of the Temporary Investigation Commission of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian Parliament.

The document includes the measures and prepared communication messages intended to respond to the public situation surrounding the work of this commission, they add.

NABU and SAP also published in another message a video about the special operation, with a duration of less than a minute, consisting of fragments of intercepted conversations, which do not reveal, however, what exactly it is about.

However, the images and audio released do not allow for the precise establishment of the full content of the conversations, nor for a conclusive determination of the specific actions being investigated by anti-corruption agencies. At the moment, the authorities have also not publicly offered all the details regarding the individuals who appear or intervene in the released fragments.

The publication of the video comes as searches and other proceedings linked to the so-called special operation “Forrest Gump” move forward, directed against an alleged criminal organization in which a deputy and a former deputy, as well as high-level officials from the Office of the President of Ukraine and other individuals, are allegedly involved.

Among the registered locations are the homes of Iryna Mudra, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, and MP Vadym Stolar. Anti-corruption authorities also reported the discovery of a document related to a crisis communication plan regarding the activities of a temporary investigative commission of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian Parliament.

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For now, the dissemination of fragments of the intercepted conversations constitutes one of the public elements of the operation, although the NABU and the SAP have not revealed all the details of the investigation. It is expected that the authorities will provide more information as the procedure progresses and new elements of the investigation can be made public.