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What the Galushchenko arrest meant for Operation Midas
Summary
A look back at the detention of a former energy minister at the border, and what it showed about Ukraine's anti-corruption drive.
What did it mean when a former minister was stopped at the border? On 16 February 2026, Ukraine was absorbing news from the previous day: the National Anti-Corruption Bureau had arrested former energy minister German Galushchenko at the state border, in the case known as Operation Midas.
The bureau alleged his involvement in a kickback scheme in the energy sector worth ₴4 billion, about US$100 million. As reported at the time, he was detained while trying to leave Ukraine by train, amid the corruption accusations against him.
A long investigation
Operation Midas was not a sudden case. The investigation, run by the bureau together with the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, was launched in 2024 and concerns large-scale bribery in Ukraine's energy sector during the war. Its evidence-gathering lasted 15 months. Investigators carried out more than 70 searches, seized 4 million US dollars and collected about 1,000 hours of audio recordings of the suspects' conversations. These figures were described later, as of November 2025.
Why it mattered
The arrest showed that the investigation had reached a former holder of a senior energy post. It also showed that the bureau was prepared to act at the border, when the suspect was reportedly attempting to leave the country. The alleged scale of the scheme, set against a war in which the energy sector is central, made the case one to watch for anyone following Ukraine's anti-corruption institutions.
