Yulia Tymoshenko has served as Ukraine\u2019s prime minister in 2005 and from 2007 to 2010.<\/p>\n
Published On 14 Jan 202614 Jan 2026<\/p>\n
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Ukraine\u2019s former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, has been accused of bribing members of the country\u2019s parliament and running a vote-buying scheme, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) said, according to media reports.<\/p>\n
In a statement<\/a> on the Telegram messaging application on Wednesday, NABU said it had served charges of bribery to an opposition party chief after exposing several other lawmakers last month as members of a \u201csystemic\u201d plot to receive payments in exchange for votes.<\/p>\n Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n \u201cThis concerned not one-off arrangements, but a regular cooperation mechanism that envisaged advance payments and was designed for a long-term period,\u201d NABU added.<\/p>\n A source familiar with the matter told the Reuters news agency that Tymoshenko was the subject of the probe.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor\u2019s Office (SAPO) also told Ukrainian media that Tymoshenko had been charged after SAPO and NABU officers raided her Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) political party\u2019s offices.<\/p>\n Tymoshenko, who rose to prominence two decades ago as a leader of the pro-democratic Orange Revolution and served as Ukraine\u2019s prime minister in 2005, and again from 2007 to 2010, has denied \u201call accusations\u201d but didn\u2019t specifically address the probe.<\/p>\n In a Facebook post, the opposition leader pledged to clear her name in court.<\/p>\n Her political influence in recent years has significantly diminished, with her Fatherland party holding approximately two dozen seats in Ukraine\u2019s 450-seat legislature.<\/p>\n The probe into Tymoshenko broadens an anticorruption campaign in Ukraine that has ensnared senior ministers and opposition lawmakers.<\/p>\n But tackling corruption<\/a> remains a crucial condition for Ukraine\u2019s European Union membership bid, a goal Kyiv views as central to its post-war future.<\/p>\n NABU and anticorruption prosecutors shocked Ukrainians last November by unveiling<\/a> an alleged $100m kickback scheme in the energy sector involving a former associate of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n Last July, the Ukrainian president had passed a bill which sought to curb the country\u2019s anticorruption agencies\u2019 independence.<\/p>\n But after November\u2019s reports from NABU and following months of widespread protests against his controversial bill, Zelenskyy urged full cooperation with the investigation.<\/p>\n