The libs give up on Europe
Zelensky's 'Dynasty' mansion complex and Russo-Dubai-London diamond empire. The parable of Syngman Ree.
How are Ukraine’s warriors for Liberal Civilization going?
With the USAID tap closed off at the start of the year, they’ve been searching for a range of new - and old - patrons. The EU, Czech financier Tomas Fiala, ex-president Petro Poroshenko.
But they all have one thing in common - a strong dislike for president Volodymyr Zelensky. They’ve always hated him for being a headstrong ‘populist’ outside of their control. While the liberals were competing for Open Society Foundation grants, Zelensky was giving private comedy shows to then-president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev.
Ever since 2022, the liberals have found themselves in a strange situation. At first, Zelensky gave a number of attractive government posts to representatives of the liberal crowd. The liberals were also highly sympathetic to his project of imprisoning or extra-judicially killing the ‘illiberal Russian opposition’, which before 2022 often occupied the number 1 spot in polls. Liberal Atlanticist parties, like the Fukuyama-approved Holos, were lucky to get above 5% in national elections.
However, to their wide-eyed surprise, it turned out that Zelensky’s approach to the pro-Russian opposition could extend to the liberals as well. This year, he’s even been trying to mobilize them! But that’s only something that those without experience in democracy-building NGOs are qualified for!
Even worse, Zelensky challenged their comfortable spots in office. The liberals’ attempts to ‘counter corruption’ in military procurements over 2023-2024 was condemned by top figures close to Zelensky, like general Kirillo Budanov and defense minister Rustem Umerov. According to them, the liberals were merely slowing down procurement. There were even hints that they were merely interested in countering corruption that didn’t benefit them. The protests from Biden’s diplomats were to no avail.
Over the course of 2025, the clash between Zelensky and the liberals has reached an unprecedented pitch. Zelensky clearly hopes that Trump will either tolerate or even support Zelensky’s repression of the Democrat Party-affiliated, Russiagate-causing Ukrainian ‘Sorosites’.
The Sorosites themselves, for that matter, hope that Zelensky’s rocky relations with Washington, coupled with never-ending frontline retreats, will allow them to replace or neutralize Zelensky with a ‘national unity government’.
The peak of this conflict was in July of this year, when Zelensky tried to get rid of the independence of the western-funded ‘anti-corruption organs’. He backed down after the EU threatened to cut military aid. You don’t mess with the west’s instruments of control if you want to remain in place as a western proxy.
However, Zelensky has continued the pressure since then on the liberal ‘Sorosite’ community. I’ve covered pressure by Zelensky’s security services on liberal journalists and NGO figures critiquing his wartime corruption here.
Nevertheless, in some respects the liberals seem to be much more aggressive than Mr Zelensky. Safe in their studios (or in Brussels), they just keep on pumping out the anti-Zelensky content. For instance, an October 7 investigation by Ukrainska Pravda into corruption at the Bureau of Economic Security (BES).
Putting the ‘right’ person in charge of the BES has been one of the main demands of the west’s and their allies throughout 2025, and they were very unhappy that Zelensky refused to appoint their man. It was only after Zelensky lost out in the summer battle with the Sorosites that he finally appointed the Sorosite-approved Tsyvinsky to the post in early August. According to Ukrainska Pravda, they are only able to heroically release this investigation on the BES because Zelensky’s people no longer have power in the agency. Otherwise, they imply, they would be cruelly repressed. No doubt.
Today we’ll take a look at four notable liberal interventions from the past month. We’ll begin with two recent hit-pieces by Ukraine’s liberal press against Zelensky’s corrupt coterie. Then, we’ll move onto two interesting editorials - one on the contemporary relevance of South Korea’s venal wartime dictator, and another on the fading appeal of the European Union in Ukraine.
Dynasty
Ukrainska Pravda, like other liberal media, has so far avoided attacking Zelensky directly. Instead, they focus on his murky colleagues. Their favorite target, of course, is head of the presidential administration Andriy Yermak and his aide, Oleg Tatarov.
Over the past few months, two new bete noires have appeared - Oleksiy Chernyshov and Timur Myndich.
Let’s begin with Chernyshov. Ukrainska Pravda released a 30 minute expose on his latest antics on October 11:
Chernyshov made waves back in July when the ‘minister of national unity’, whose stated goal was to encourage Ukrainians abroad to return home, decided to elope from the country after an investigation into him by the anti-corruption organs. Many believe that this event precipitated Zelensky’s failed crackdown on said organs.
Anyway, Cheryshov was merely given a a notice of suspicion from the organs for abuse of office and receiving unlawful benefits on a particularly large scale. His short-lived ‘ministry of national unity’ was also dissolved, not even surviving a year.
But soon, the western-funded Bihus.info began an investigation into a high-end cottage settlement Chernyshov and allied business interests had been constructing from 2019 until the present.
This is important for two reasons. First, because Zelensky’s pre-war presidency became notorious for the corruption of its largest infrastructure project, known as ‘the big build’. It soon became nicknamed the ‘big steal’, with road construction costing many times higher than in Poland, despite much higher wages in the western neighbour. Liberal media released countless investigations into the spectacular graft at play.
Second, Chernyshov got a lot of hype at the start of the war as the man responsible for rebuilding Ukraine. He was Minister for Communities and Territories Development from 2020 until November 2022. He put out a number of rousing speeches about all the rebuilding the government would undertake. He was particularly proud of the mobile homes that had been built for internally displaced people. These tiny homes would not be particularly appreciated by the handful of people lucky enough to receive one, but that’s another topic.
Anyway, Chernyshov clearly found building homes for refugees much less attractive than building homes for himself and his friends:
Bihus’s September investigation into Chernyshov’s paradisical plot, according to Ukrainska Pravda, put the western-funded anti-corruption organs on the scent of their prey:
According to UP’s sources in NABU [the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine] and SAPO [the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office] , there is reasonable suspicion not only that the construction of these mansions was overseen by Chernyshov — first as Minister of Regional Development, then as head of Naftogaz, and later as Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine — but also that the funds used may have had a criminal origin.
….
Quote: “The pretrial investigation established that Oleksiy Mykhailovych Chernyshov, being an official of a central executive authority, and his wife, Svitlana Oleksandrivna Chernyshova, acting through the companies under their control — LLC Bloom Development and the housing cooperative Sunny Shore — as well as their officers, acquired real estate in the form of land plots and houses located in Kyiv Oblast, Obukhiv District, Kozyn township. By doing so, they may have committed a crime under Part 3 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.”
That article refers to actions aimed at concealing or disguising the origin of property on a particularly large scale, property whose factual circumstances indicate that it was obtained by criminal means.
The development, began in 2019, was only briefly paused by the Russian invasion in February 2022. It resumed that year, soon after Russian forces left the Kiev area. Google earth shows roofs appearing on the houses by the end of the year.
Chernyshov supervised the construction through his trusted intermediaries - mostly former subordinates from Chernyshov’s time at various ministries and Naftogaz.
Best of all, the total declared income of Oleksiy and Svitlana Chernyshov between 2019 and 2024 amounted to only 106,475 hryvnias — roughly 2,600 USD. And somehow, they manage to build four mansions, each around 1,000 square meters in size.
Ukrainska Pravda compares this venality with Chernyshov’s statement in March 2022:
I am proud to lead the Ministry for the Development of Communities and Territories. Ukraine stands strong. Everything that the occupiers are destroying will be rebuilt.
But the best detail is in the name of the development - the elite cottage complex is called ‘Dynasty’. I wonder whether this is an example of the ‘new’ or ‘old’ Ukraine Chernyshov referred to in this July 2022 statement at the international Ukraine reconstruction conference at Lugarno, Switzerland:
I am convinced this is a historic moment. Today we will discuss the reconstruction of Ukraine. And today marks the day when the actual restoration of Ukraine begins. We all understand that we are currently in a war zone, and there is much to be done before full-scale reconstruction can begin. But today, as already proposed, we must answer the key questions: what kind of country are we building, what are we restoring? Are we restoring the old country, or do we want to develop an entirely new country?
Ukrainska Pravda was told by the anti-corruption organs that Chernyshov has continued paying for the construction of ‘Dynasty’ all the way to the present, even after his July 2025 corruption accusations and loss of ministerial positions.
The question, of course, is who these four enormous mansions are intended for. Ukrainska Pravda doesn’t answer, but many have speculated on which members of Ukraine’s currently reigning political dynasty could occupy them - perhaps Zelensky, Yermak, Mindich and Chernyshov?
Vitaliy Shabunin, Ukraine’s most prominent Sorosite NGO grifter, made such speculations on telegram. Naturally, Shabunin seamlessly wove this accusation into a demand that his friend be made the head of one of the anti-corruption organs. La lutta continua…
The Diamond Network
Apart from Chernyshov, the liberals also love hating on Timur Mindich. Like Chernyshov, this is an obscure businessman close to Zelensky prior to the presidency. Back in July, there was much talk that the threat of investigation into Mindich’s dark deeds by the anti-corruption organs pushed Zelensky to try liquidate their independence.
MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak is an archetypal sorosite from the ultra-atlanticist Holos party.
He seems to have been infected with some sort of Mindich brain parasite, since he simply cannot stop putting out endless content about the man. Though it must be said, one sometimes has the suspicion that some of it may be invented. His constant promises to ‘release the Mindich tapes’ still haven’t been fulfilled, nor is it confirmed that the famous golden toilet he posted a few months ago really was in Mindich’s apartment, or that Mindich micro-managed the country while sitting on it.
I suppose when you’re sitting in Brussels, as Zheleznyak usually is, the air predisposes one to exercising the imagination.
Anyway, in late October Zheleznyak put out a Mindich hit piece that I must admit was rather entertaining. Its title, in usual Zheleznyak fashion, was:
MINDICH’S DIAMOND EMPIRE: how Zelensky’s party stole Kolomoisky’s asset and expanded into the Russian Federation
In short, Zheleznyak found that Mindich has been managing a diamond refinery plant with business in London, Dubai and… St Petersburg.
