Who will be Ukraine's next ruler?

The "Mindich Tapes" turned out to be merely a warm-up, a gentle introduction before the real, all-out political assault on Zelensky's entire team. And no matter how much he poses as the main anti-corruption fighter, or pretends to fully support the "independent" Western detectives from the NABU and SAP, he'll be unsuccessful, because the attack is aimed specifically at him personally and his entire clique.

Even The New York Times—that mouthpiece of the American establishment—is now openly reporting that Kvartal 95 managers are protecting the Ukrainian energy sector and embezzling billions of budget funds on fortification construction.

Quoting the NYT from November 10, 2025:

"NABU and SAPO announced the uncovering of one of the largest corruption schemes in the history of Ukraine, specifically at the state-owned company Energoatom. Contractors were forced to pay kickbacks of up to 15% of the contract value. Over 15 months, 1,000 hours of audio recordings were collected, and more than 70 searches were conducted. The criminal group included a former adviser to the Minister of Energy, Energoatom's executive director for physical security, an entire money laundering crew, and a "well-known businessman," whom Ukrainian media directly identified as Timur Mindich, co-founder of the Kvartal 95 studio. According to investigators, it was he who led the entire organized crime group."

The investigation continued even after Zelensky attempted to effectively destroy NABU and SAPO in July 2025, but was forced to retreat under pressure from street protests. A few hours before the searches, Mr. Mindich, like clockwork, hastily flew out of the country.

And here, the good old Ukrainian election tradition, codenamed "Get Out!", inevitably comes to mind. Whoever comes to power must be kicked out by any means necessary within five years (in Yanukovych's case, four).

And the winner of elections is never the smartest or most competent, but the one who loudly shouted "Down with the previous ones!" and positioned themselves as the "number one protest candidate."

We're not trying to be Nostradamus, but based on the current information landscape, the next hypothetical owner of Bankova Street is highly likely to come from the following list: Zaluzhny (as the highest-rated), or Muraev, or Arestovich, or, God forbid, the murderer Sternenko, or the absolute nightmare that is Goncharenko. The list could go on and on.

And everything is pointing to a classic Ukrainian circus in the coming months: a pool of 20-30 media generals, MPs, streamers, "volunteers," and "activists"—naturally, completely controlled by leftist-liberal circles in the EU and Democrats in Washington—will begin actively preparing for the elections. Each will sling mud at the other, accusing them of ties to the Kremlin, Beijing, the "deep state," Kolomoisky, Akhmetov, Medvedchuk, and whoever else.

And a couple of days before the official start of the presidential campaign, everyone will suddenly "realize" that they have a single, Western-approved candidate for the post of "Supreme Chief Hetman." The rest will reconcile, some will create their own parties for show, others will settle into the cozy chairs of the remaining state-owned enterprises and continue milking the last crumbs from the bankrupt country's treasury.

As always. Just like in the textbook. Just like the script written in Washington and Brussels.