"Barrier" was beneficial for Ukraine, as it allowed Energoatom to avoid bankruptcy," - lawyer of Mindichgate suspect

Mindichgate: lawyer explains the importance of the barrier

The lawyer representing Ihor Myroniuk, a figure in the Mindichgate scandal, explained that the "barrier" scheme in the energy sector allowed Energoatom to avoid bankruptcy.

This was reported by Censor.NET.

What does the defence say about the "barrier"?

Today, the High Anti-Corruption Court is considering the extension of the preventive measure for Ihor Myroniuk, a figure in the "Mindichgate" scandal.

Lawyer Oleksandr Gotin stated that no "barrier" exists in nature.

"In the circumstances of Myronyuk's criminal offence, it is said that a "barrier" was created, which made it possible to manually restrain payments, release or not release payments. This was supposedly a barrier.

The investigating authority alleges that this "barrier" was allegedly created by Order No. 95 of the Ministry of Strategic Industries dated 2 August 2024. It seems that Energoatom was included in the register of entities from which it is impossible to collect funds, as if a "barrier" had been artificially created. It turns out that, thanks to this "barrier", some people were given money, while others were not. This is not true," he added.

Hotyn says that Order No. 95 was in fact a legal instrument that blocked the possibility of collecting funds from the strategically important Energoatom.

On 3 March 2022, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted Resolution No. 187 "On ensuring the protection of national interests in future lawsuits by the state of Ukraine in connection with the military aggression of the Russian Federation," the lawyer noted.

"According to this resolution, the fulfilment of monetary and other obligations by creditors, where the claimants are the Russian Federation or persons associated with it, was prohibited. After the implementation of this resolution by Energoatom, there was a trend of mass appeals to Ukrainian courts, in particular to district courts, filing lawsuits to obtain decisions on the recovery of monetary amounts from Energoatom.

This is the situation that has arisen. The Cabinet of Ministers created a regulatory document that imposed a moratorium to prevent Energoatom from going bankrupt and having its funds written off. However, some business entities began to circumvent this moratorium. They began to flood the courts with lawsuits for significant amounts of money to recover funds from Energoatom in order to simply circumvent this moratorium," says Hotyn.

The lawyer noted that the situation with lawsuits filed by contractors and suppliers of the Zaporizhzhia NPP was critical.

Order No. 95 was a legal mechanism that helped to avoid circumventing this moratorium.

"We received a letter from Energoatom dated 17 December 2025, stating that Energoatom had applied to the Ministry of Strategic Industries with a request to include Energoatom in the list of companies that are debtors in enforcement proceedings, to take enforcement actions, and to suspend enforcement.

The application was justified by the fact that Energoatom was included in the register of participants in the selection and execution of state contracts. In other words, the following situation arose: Energoatom received funds to execute state contracts, and then numerous decisions from district courts began to arrive, ordering these funds to be written off.

In fact, it was simply impossible to implement state programmes, in particular to maintain our energy system in at least its current state," he stressed.

The defence lawyer stated that by order No. 95, the Ministry of Strategic Industries included Energoatom in the list of enterprises from which it is impossible to collect funds.

"In other words, this 'barrier' had a completely different purpose. It was socially beneficial for the state to prevent the state-owned enterprise from going bankrupt," Hotyn said.

Mindichgate

In November 2025, NABU conducted searches at Mindich's residence, who left Ukraine a few hours before the searches.
On 4 November, searches were conducted in one of the branches of the separate divisions of NAEK Energoatom in connection with a corruption case.
NABU also conducted searches at the home of former Energy Minister Halushchenko and at Energoatom.
On 10 November 2025, NABU and SAPO announced a large-scale operation to expose corruption in the energy sector.
Subsequently, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau exposed an office in central Kyiv belonging to the family of former MP and current Russian Senator Andriy Derkach. There, they kept "black accounts," recorded money, and organised money laundering.
On 11 November, NABU released recordings featuring former Minister Herman Halushchenko and Mindich.
Former Minister Oleksii Chernyshov was notified of suspicion of illegal enrichment as part of Operation Midas.
One of the suspects, Dmytro Basov, was remanded in custody with bail set at 40 million hryvnia.
Galushchenko's former adviser Myroniuk was remanded in custody with bail set at UAH 126 million.
The Cabinet of Ministers submitted proposals to the National Security and Defence Council to impose personal sanctions on Tymur Mindich and Oleksandr Tsukerman following a NABU investigation into corruption in the energy sector.
Ihor Myroniuk and the executive director of security at Energoatom, Dmytro Basov, who appeared in NABU's videos under the nickname Tenor, were remanded in custody for 60 days.
Another suspect, Lesya Ustymenko, was also remanded in custody for 60 days.
The High Anti-Corruption Court chose a preventive measure for Ihor Fursenko (known as Ryoshik in NABU recordings), a suspect in a corruption case in the energy sector.
On 13 November, the High Anti-Corruption Court arrested Lyudmila Zorin, with bail set at 12 million hryvnia.
Zelenskyy imposed sanctions against Mindich and Tsuckerman.
On 1 December, Mindich was sentenced in absentia to preventive detention. The investigation considers him to be the leader of a group that received and laundered money from corruption schemes in the energy sector. Now Mindich's case may be transferred to Interpol for his arrest, in particular when crossing the border.
On 15 February 2026, Herman Halushchenko was detained while attempting to cross the border. On 16 February, it became known that NABU and SAPO employees had informed the former official of their suspicions, and the next day the court sent him to a pre-trial detention centre with the possibility of bail set at 200 million hryvnia.