Name: Ukraine's ex-energy minister detained while trying to leave country | BBC News
Uploaded: 2026-02-16T17:05:57.000Z
Duration: 4 min 13 s
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Ukraine's former energy minister, who was forced out of government in a corruption scandal, has been arrested while trying to leave the country.

Gurman Kulushenko was one of several government figures implicated in an alleged $100 million embezzlement scheme in November, a scandal that has threatened Volodymyr Zelenskyy's administration and increased pressure on the Ukrainian president from Washington to hold elections, which have been suspended since the start of the war in 2020.

Our correspondent in Kyiv, Paul Adams, has more on what the former energy minister has been accused of.

This is part of a very elaborate embezzlement scheme that was first unveiled by Ukraine's corruption authorities in November involving Mr.

Horoshenko and a number of others, particularly focused on Ukraine's nuclear industry and nuclear authorities.

Essentially a scheme of substantial kickbacks from contractors, stories of bags of cash being transported sometimes out of the country, lots of recorded phone conversations in which the individuals cited discussed the scheme.

And so I think this caused outrage in Ukraine even before the winter.

And now, as you can see, with Ukraine very much in the grips of winter, it seems even more painful that those involved in keeping the lights on and homes heated were involved in a scheme in which, allegedly, they were enriching themselves.

So Mr. Gerashchenko was found on a train at the border yesterday.

It is thought that he has young children abroad and that consequently, an individual might be allowed to go and visit them.

But in his case, as someone currently under investigation, that is not.

He was not permitted to leave the country.

It is thought that he's being brought back here to Kyiv, where the investigation into this whole affair continues.

Has it caused people to start talking about, like we were saying, Washington is pushing the pressure on for elections.

Is it causing people to start talking about wanting to have elections?

No, I don't think Ukrainians make that connection at all.

They see this as part of a long standing story of corruption at the highest levels.

But this whole notion that somehow that needs to be turned into a form of political pressure on President Zelensky to hold elections in the middle of wartime, I think most Ukrainians would regard as utterly absurd.

This essentially is a Russian idea which the Trump administration has latched onto.

The idea that somehow Ukraine can clean house and that only after an election has taken place and a new administration has been established, that then the peace process can somehow move forward.

That was described by the head of the European Parliament at the Munich Security Conference the other day as a cynical trap.

Let's not forget that the last time any Ukrainians were asked to vote since the full scale Russian invasion was in September 2022 when Ukrainians living under Russian occupation were forced to participate in a referendum on Ukraine's annexation of four areas of Ukraine.

The idea that a country at war could conduct a meaningful election with 2 to 3 million of its citizens still living under Russian occupation is frankly for the birds.

But there is a great fear that President Zelensky in his desire to please and show a willingness to accept and run with American ideas might be pressured into accepting that idea.

He said that no one in Ukraine was in favor of it but that if the Americans were going to push it he would consider it provided there was a substantial ceasefire in place and that mechanisms had been put in place to allow people to vote freely and fairly.