The Zelensky Family is alive and well. The most powerful men in the country are members of this clan, tied by years of shared history, family, and, as they themselves say, religion. Though a number of them have decided to make Israel their permanent home, the Family remains as strong as ever.
Zelensky: probably not good for the Jews, image-wise. At least, judging from the increasingly vengeful direction that Ukrainian social media has been taking over the past 12 months as a result of the never-ending scandal over the Family’s corrupt dealings. The Family blames Italianophobia, I mean, anti-semitism.
The latter term has already been used by Timur Mindich, top Capo in the family. He blamed it when complaining to a Ukrainian journalist at the start of 2026. Said journalist had finally tracked Mindich down while him strolling a Tel Aviv beach. I particularly enjoyed this line from Mindich, when asked about his political influence in Ukraine:
Never have I ever paid anyone to do anything!
Anyway, let me just remind my readers who this incredibly entertaining man is. I wrote about him in detail here, but basically Mindich is a very old, close friend of Zelensky’s from the Dnepropetrovsk Jewish community. Over the course of 2022-25, Mindich’s fingers began to be uncovered in just about every economic asset in the country, particularly Fire Point, the scandal-ridden military company that was suddenly given a third of Ukraine’s defense budget. Its founders were young businesswomen with no background in military industry, but who had happened to work in show business along with Mindich’s friend Andrei Yermak (Zelensky’s chief of staff).
In November 2025, Mindich fled Ukraine for Israel following charges against him from the anti-corruption organs. He was accused of managing an organized crime group, large scale money laundering, and exercising undue influence on the minister of defense. The anti-corruption organs then began releasing wiretapped recordings of conversation Mindich had with various other members of money laundering group, in which they had delightful nicknames like ‘Che Guevara’, ‘Carlsson’ and ‘Sugarman’. Among the revelations of this first ‘Mindich-gate’ was that Mindich’s group had stolen $100 million USD from Ukraine’s wartime energy system, while ordinary men and women froze in their apartments.
That’s the down-low on Mindich. Of course, he isn’t really the leader of all this. That honour would fall to Zelensky himself, and probably Andrey Yermak, his beloved head of presidential administration from 2020 until November 2025.
Anyway, it matters little whether Yermak or Mindich have official positions, or even if they are in Ukraine at all. As we’ll see in the new batch of Mindich Tapes released over the past week, members of the Family don’t depend on government posts for their power. Instead, in profanity-laden phone calls, in friendly chats over a cigarette, they haggle and decide who will occupy which posts.
The less visible they are, the more influential. Top capo Yermak, perhaps even increased his control ever since his forced resignation from the post of head of Zelensky’s presidential administration in November 2025. Timur Mindich, the most-often well-known Family member after Yermak, has never possessed any government posts. In today’s translation of the latest leaks, we’ll see other prominent Family members discuss how much easier it is to get things done in the shadows.
We’re talking about the Family because over the past week, there has been a new spate of releases of incredibly titillating wiretapped Mindich Tapes. A new political crisis has erupted. There’s so much to this story, that it is somewhat hard to begin. I’ll begin by outlining the chief questions raised by these latest leaks in the never-ending ‘Mindich-Gate’.
First of all, the new conversations illuminate the reality of power in Ukraine — decided by a small, informal group of previously totally unknown political operators. Members of this group act according to the laws of organized crime — all revenue must be shared equally with the rest of the clan, any ‘selfishness’ is punished.
Second, these new leaks are particularly important because Mindich and his colleagues repeatedly mention their daily chats with ‘Vova’ and ‘Andrey’ about this or that corrupt scheme or political matter — Volodymyr Zelensky and Andrey Yermak. Previous Mindich leaks did not include such direct mentions of the heads of state. There are also insistent rumors that upcoming Mindich tapes links will finally include Zelensky’s own voice.
Third, one of the best lines from this new batch — ‘war is the economy’. In these hours of new conversations, the Family barely ever talks about the war, and never mentions Russia. But they do talk a great deal about lucrative military contracts, and seem to even worry what would happen if the war ended.
That’s what we learn directly in the tapes. Today’s article will be focused on unpacking just the first two points, and presenting the first ever detailed English translations of the latest tapes, which I must say are much more entertaining than all the previous ones. But there are two other questions raised by these new Mindich tapes that upcoming articles will delve into more deeply.
