Flag of the Government of Ukraine

Flag of the Ministry of Finance

October 2025

Ukraine’s corruption issue is one of which that defines the exact problem in the country, but simply beginning a policy and an administration that attacks corruption as whole sees the government fighting itself. It creates massive divisions and taking on the entire apparatus would only see a failed reelection. So, the solution that the President and the Minister of Finance (Sergio Marchenko) have decided that the best solution is to start small.

In cooperation with the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Finance has elected to begin prosecutions on wealthy individuals in the country as a “gesture” of the new leaf for the nation. It was the beginning of an economic and political war on the Ukrainian Oligarchs, starting with Rinat Akhmatova. Mr. Akhmetov is no stranger to accusations as well as claims, however as one of Ukraine’s richest men (also being the 327th richest man in the World), he rises as one prime candidate for the Ministry to exemplify.

An immediate audit and halt on all of his assets was conducted before he was found guilty of tax fraud as well as tax evasion for the year of 2017 and 2018. A warrant was issued for his arrest but Akhmetov had turned himself in voluntarily to Ukrainian authorities. With the Ministry of Justice handling his case from the highest level, he was facing up to 10 years in prison.

As the start of an extremely high profile case, Rinat along with many Russian-Ukrainians called the entire situation a farce, that President Zelensky’s administration were purely targeting the OPLF, a Russophilic Party of which Akhmetov was a very avid supporter of.

He was released on bail for $2 million (which was paid immediately) and soon fined $750 million and sentenced to 2-years probation at the conclusion of the trial. To a man with a net worth of $7 billion, it was a meager gesture, a slap on the wrist. The man spent no less than 12 hours in prison before being released.

An example was to be made of this man and all those that came after him but, with political motivations being evident, it caused far more harm than good... if Ukraine was to fix its corruption, it would have to look internally. As stated by an OPLF Minister, “It’s strange to think that every member of our party has undergone an audit in the past four months while most members of the ruling party hasn’t received one in over two years.”

If Zelensky wanted to fix it, he’d have to begin a war on his own people...