Key facts
- Zelensky said Liashko, Klymenko and Arakhamia had no links to the alleged network, citing anti-corruption officials.
- The tapes show Khimprom planned to bribe Klymenko and Liashko to keep its synthetic drugs off Ukraine's banned list.
- The Anti-Corruption Bureau said Klymenko was not implicated, and the plan failed.
- Zelensky said Khimprom has made inroads into Poland and is trying to enter Germany, citing Ukrainian intelligence.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on November 13 that senior officials named in recordings released by Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau had no links to the alleged criminal network at the center of the investigation, citing anti-corruption officials.
Zelensky was referring to Health Minister Viktor Liashko, former Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, and lawmaker David Arakhamia. Their names appeared in recordings in which the alleged perpetrators discussed which senior officials they should seek to bribe or influence. None of the three appear on the tapes published by the bureau.
"I asked the anti-corruption officials directly: 'Do you have anything on them?' They said: 'No. Neither Liashko, nor Klymenko, nor Arakhamia has anything to do with any contacts with these people," Zelensky told journalists.
According to the tapes, the transnational drug empire known as Khimprom planned to bribe Klymenko, now secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, and Liashko to keep its synthetic drugs off Ukraine's list of banned substances. The plan failed, and the Anti-Corruption Bureau said Klymenko was not implicated.
According to Ukrainian investigators, the Khimprom network was founded by Yehor Burkin, a Russian-born fugitive known by the call sign "Mexican" in the bureau's recordings. The recordings suggest that Burkin kept contact with Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) during the full-scale war.
Burkin and Andrii Osipov, referred to as "Criminal," allegedly ran a network that protected scam call centers, sold synthetic drugs and attacked those attempting to uncover the group's illicit activity. According to investigators, the two were behind U420, a retail chain selling synthetic cannabinoids and psychotropic substances at purported "souvenir shops." To bypass restrictions, they repeatedly changed the chemical structure of the substances, producing compounds not formally included on lists of controlled drugs, the bureau said.