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What the Galushchenko arrest meant for Operation Midas
Summary
A retrospective on the detention of a former energy minister, three days before 18 February 2026, in a long-running anti-corruption inquiry.
What happened to Ukraine's anti-corruption drive in the days before 18 February 2026? The country's National Anti-Corruption Bureau had, on 15 February, arrested German Galushchenko, a former energy minister, at the state border.
The bureau linked the arrest to Operation Midas and to his alleged involvement in a ₴4 billion (about US$100 million) kickback scheme in the energy sector. As reported at the time, he was detained while trying to leave Ukraine by train, amid corruption accusations against him.
The inquiry behind the arrest
Operation Midas is an investigation by the bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, launched in 2024. It concerns large-scale bribery in Ukraine's energy sector, committed during the Russo-Ukrainian war.
The data-gathering phase lasted 15 months. Investigators carried out more than 70 searches, seized 4 million US dollars and obtained about 1,000 hours of audio recordings of the suspects' conversations.
Why the date matters
By 18 February 2026, the arrest of a former minister at the border was the most visible moment in an inquiry that had been under way for well over a year. The alleged scheme's scale, ₴4 billion, and its setting, the energy sector during wartime, defined how the case was understood.
