Former Deputy Office Head Iryna Mudra Detained Overnight in Corruption Probe

[UPDATED: Aug. 19, 8:12 pm , Kyiv time. In comments to RBC-Ukraine, Mudra’s lawyer Artem Krykun-Trush said Mudra had been served with a notice of suspicion, however, detention did not take place. He confirmed that two searches were conducted today at two locations. RBC-Ukraine’s sources within law enforcement agencies have also denied Mudra’s detention.] Iryna Mudra, the former deputy head of the Presidential Office, has been detained and is currently undergoing investigative actions at the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).Mudra will remain in a temporary detention facility overnight, the Member of Parliament Oleksiy Honcharenko said in a statement on Wednesday.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.The detention comes hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky ousted Mudra from her post, following the announcement of a new probe by the country’s anti-graft agencies.Probe targets lawmakers and presidential officialsOn Wednesday morning, NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) announced the operation, targeting an alleged “criminal organization” involving a current and a former Ukrainian lawmaker, as well as other senior officials from the Presidential Office.According to Ukrainska Pravda, citing law enforcement sources, Mudra’s premises were searched during the operation. During the searches, NABO and SAPO, have reportedly uncovered a document containing a crisis communication plan related to the activities of Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada’s temporary investigative commission.Zelensky signed the decree ousting Mudra just hours after the probe was made public.Mudra worked for multiple banks as a lawyer before becoming deputy justice minister in May 2022. She was promoted to the post of deputy head of the Presidential Office in March 2024 and took part in ratifying the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Other Topics of Interest On Fedorov, Zelensky, Elections, and the Political Crisis Elections during wartime would not be fully democratic, and we would pay a high price for that; yet both Zelensky and Fedorov are thinking about precisely this. Alongside Mudra, law enforcement searched the premises of former lawmaker Vadym Stolar, who belonged to the banned pro-Russian “Opposition – For Life” party.New probe related to previous, dubbed “Operation Midas”Although very little is currently known about the new “Forrest Gump” probe, it is said to be related to the previous probe dubbed “Operation Midas” involving Tymur Mindich, a former business associate of Zelensky, and former energy and justice minister Herman Haluschenko.Haluschenko and Svitlana Hrynchuk, his former deputy who later took over the energy ministry, were ousted after the Midas probe found them involved in a $100 million kickback scheme.Ukrainian outlet Dzerkalo Tyzhnia said the latest probe also targets lawmaker Maksym Mykytas, representatives of Sense Bank – a bank tied to sanctioned Russian businessmen Mikhail Fridman, Andrey Kosogov, and Petr Aven – and justice ministry officials. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 97% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.