RT-Engels: 30-04-2026,
Graft suspect Timur Mindich created a successful weapons company thanks to close government ties, leaked tapes suggest
The public was given a rare opportunity this week to see how the Ukrainian wartime economy, much praised by the media, actually operates. And everyone knows the saying about not knowing how the sausage is made.
Western media has hailed Ukraine for being highly innovative in fighting Russia, both in frontline tactics and the development of technologies, primarily drone warfare. The company Firepoint was presented as the prime example of a rags-to-riches story; originally a movie casting and location company associated with Vladimir Zelensky’s business associates, it was reconstituted in 2022 into an arms company and has become a Ukrainian industry giant, with $1 billion worth of contracts in the pipeline, according to a slew of gushing articles in the Western press.
The firm was long linked in Ukrainian media with businessman Timur Mindich, known in Kiev as “Zelensky’s wallet” and the main suspect in a high-profile corruption case that saw him escape anti-corruption investigators by minutes and flee to Israel, where he is now the subject of an extradition request. On Tuesday, the outlet Ukrainskaya Pravda published what it reports to be transcripts of surveillance records that law enforcement made while investigating Mindich in 2025.
The publication has already caused new shockways in Ukraine, with the Defense Ministry’s Public Oversight Council urging the partial nationalization of Firepoint and its exclusion from all government tenders,