More than half of Ukrainians who know about 'Midas' case consider Zelenskyy responsible for Mindich's actions – KIIS
Less than a quarter (22%) of Ukrainians have not heard anything about the investigation into corruption in the energy sector involving high-ranking state officials, 77% know about it, but only 35% have heard a lot about it and understand its essence, and 42% have heard something, but do not have a holistic idea, according to the results of a sociological survey on public perception of the anti-corruption investigation within the framework of the "Mindich tapes," conducted from November 26 to December 13 by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).
Respondents who know about this investigation were asked additional questions. 71% of them claim that in their opinion it is justified and the mentioned corrupt actions most likely really took place. In contrast, 15% believe that the investigation is dubious and its main goal is to put pressure on the top leadership of the state, and the same number could not decide on their opinion.
Also, among those who know about the investigation, 59% believe that the President of Ukraine is personally responsible for the corrupt actions of the co-owner of the Kvartal 95 studio Tymur Mindich. Some 30% do not consider the President personally responsible, 11% could not decide.
Two-thirds (67%) believe that the level of corruption in Ukraine has increased after the full-scale Russian invasion, although in September 2025, before the investigation into corruption in the energy sector, even more believed so - 71%. 19% believe that the level of corruption has not changed, and another 7% believe that it has even decreased.
"The anti-corruption investigation within the framework of the Mindich recordings rightly outraged the Ukrainian public. At the same time, we would like to draw attention to the fact that the majority of Ukrainians (59%, in September - 56%) continue to believe that there are indeed attempts to fight corruption in Ukraine and there are positive developments. And the share of those who consider Ukraine "hopelessly corrupt" has even decreased. Also, if we talk about the impact on trust in the president, the level of trust decreased by about 10%, but in December it was restored against the backdrop of peace negotiations… The Ukrainian authorities must certainly draw the right conclusions and continue to make decisions that would provide the public with evidence that they (the authorities) are committed to overcoming corruption," said Anton Hrushetsky, executive director of KIIS.
The survey was conducted using telephone interviews (CATI) based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers in all controlled regions of Ukraine among 1,000 adult respondents. Formally, under normal circumstances, the statistical error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.3) did not exceed 4.1% for indicators close to 50% and 1.8% for indicators close to 5%, but under war conditions, a certain systematic deviation is added to it. As reported, on November 10, National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) announced a large-scale operation to expose corruption in the energy sector, which was called "Midas". The activities of a high-level criminal organization have been documented, whose members built a large-scale corruption scheme to influence strategic state-sector enterprises, in particular Energoatom.
Among the participants in the "Midas" scheme identified by the NABU are a member of the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission (NEURC) Serhiy Pushkar, businessman Tymur Mindich, former executive director for physical protection and security of Energoatom Dmytro Basov, and former advisor to the Minister of Energy, and previously deputy head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine Ihor Myronyuk.
Mindich left Ukraine on November 10, a few hours before the searches. As stated in the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, on legal grounds.