On May 20, it emerged that Mindich, a businessman named in
NABU’s Midas case over alleged energy-sector embezzlement, had filed a lawsuit
with the Administrative Court of Cassation. Mindich, who is now hiding in
Israel, is seeking to have the Ukrainian National Security and Defense
Council’s sanctions decision against him declared illegal and the restrictions
lifted. His lawsuit names his former business partner — President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy, who signed the sanctions decree — as the defendant.
Tetiana Shevchuk, a lawyer and board member at the
Anti-Corruption Action Center, said she was surprised Mindich is only now
challenging a decision Zelenskyy imposed back in November 2025. She noted that
the deadline to file a lawsuit seeking to cancel sanctions is six months — and
that it expires in May.
“Perhaps this is some kind of political signal to the
president that Mindich is not willing to be cast as the only or main scapegoat
in this story,” the lawyer suggested. “And he is showing that he will defend
himself.”
But there are other theories.
Against each other — or together?
Mindich filed the lawsuit on May 14 — the day the High
Anti-Corruption Court ordered the arrest of Andriy Yermak, the former
presidential chief of staff, with bail set at 140 million hryvnias. Yermak,
like Mindich, is suspected of involvement in a group that may have laundered
460 million hryvnias through construction in Kozyn, an elite Kyiv suburb,
involving the Dynasty cooperative. Law enforcement officials have classified
the suspected actions under Part 3 of Article 209 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code —
money laundering.
Volodymyr Fesenko, a political analyst and head of the board
at the Penta Center for Applied Political Studies, links Mindich’s lawsuit
specifically to the launch of the case against Yermak and developments in the investigation
into the Dynasty cooperative.
“Why has this appeared now? Because they need to show that
Mindich and Zelenskyy are not on the same team, that they are against each
other,” the political analyst suggested. “This is both in the context of the Yermak
case and to refute all the hints that they are one and the same crew. My theory
is that this is actually a coordinated move by Mindich’s lawyers and the
presidential team.”
Fesenko believes the effort is aimed at shifting public
attention away from the high-profile anti-corruption investigation.
“They need to refute the claim that Zelenskyy is part of
this organized group, as NABU put it,” he added.
At the same time, Fesenko does not rule out that Mindich may
be harboring resentment toward Zelenskyy and “does not want to be left holding
the bag.”
Trying to save foreign assets
Yaroslav Zheleznyak, a lawmaker from the Holos faction and
head of a temporary investigative commission probing actions by officials that
threaten economic security, believes Mindich is challenging the sanctions to
try to protect his foreign assets.
“If he does not challenge them, it will look as if he agrees
with them,” the lawmaker said.
Zheleznyak does not see any real prospect of the sanctions
being overturned.
Under any circumstances, every person has the right to
challenge a decision against them, Shevchuk of the Anti-Corruption Action
Center stressed. And there are legal grounds to do so — the law allows National
Security and Defense Council sanctions to be canceled.
In practice, however, doing so in Ukraine is almost
impossible. Shevchuk noted that Zelenskyy has actively used sanctions since
2019–2020. Since then, many people have tried to challenge sanctions against
them, but only a handful of cases have succeeded.
Fesenko also believes Mindich’s lawsuit has no prospects, in
part because granting it would create “an unpleasant precedent for President
Zelenskyy and for National Security and Defense Council sanctions decisions.” A
ruling in favor of the businessman hiding abroad could undermine the legal
architecture of the council’s sanctions policy and be used by everyone targeted
by sanctions. That includes Zelenskyy’s main political opponent, European
Solidarity leader Petro Poroshenko, as well as former presidential chief of
staff Andriy Bohdan, who recently said he intends to challenge the presidential
restrictions against him.
Sanctions challenges drag on for years because they are
complex cases, most often tied to state secrets and requiring closed-door
hearings, Shevchuk explained.
“It seems to me the Supreme Court does not want to be
dragged into these political quarrels, because any decision will be viewed as
political,” she added. “That is why the court will be very cautious in making
its final decision.”
Still, the Anti-Corruption Action Center representative does
not rule out that Mindich’s defense team believes it has a chance of securing a
favorable ruling.
“Given how quickly sanctions were imposed on Mindich, and
the fact that there was no specific public explanation of why they were
introduced or how this falls under the law, perhaps his defense sees a chance
to challenge them in Ukraine,” the lawyer said.
Most likely, however, Shevchuk believes Mindich filed the
lawsuit to exhaust his legal remedies in Ukraine and then take the case to the
European Court of Human Rights, where the chances of having the sanctions
declared illegal are higher.