Zelenskyy Rival Tymoshenko Accused in Vote-Bribery Scheme, Ukraine Agencies Say

Ukraine’s anti-graft agency NABU alleged that the plan emerged after a December probe into lawmakers accused of taking cash for votes.

Ukrainian politician Yulia Tymoshenko speaks during the European People's Party (EPP) congress in Valencia, Spain, on April 29, 2025. Jose Jordan/AFP/Getty Images

Ukrainian opposition party leader Yulia Tymoshenko has been served with a criminal notice of suspicion on allegations she offered improper benefits to members of Parliament in exchange for directing how they vote, Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies said on Jan. 14, in a case Tymoshenko described as politically motivated.

Tymoshenko, the leader of the Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party and a former prime minister, is suspected of offering bribes to members of Ukraine’s parliament, Olha Postolyuk, a spokesperson for the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), told public broadcaster Suspilne.

Separately, Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) said in a Jan. 14 statement that it had notified the female head of a parliamentary faction—implicitly Tymoshenko—that she is suspected of offering to provide improper benefits to lawmakers, and that a pretrial investigation into the matter is ongoing.

NABU Alleges Systemic Corruption

NABU said the suspect began negotiations with certain Ukrainian members of Parliament after the bureau and SAPO in December 2025 exposed alleged incidents of lawmakers receiving illegal benefits in exchange for their votes.

“It was not about one-time agreements, but about a regular mechanism of cooperation that involved advance payments and was intended for a long-term period,” NABU said. The bureau added that lawmakers were to receive instructions on how to vote, and in some cases, on abstaining or not participating in parliamentary decisions.

NABU released a video featuring what it described as an instruction from Tymoshenko to a lawmaker.

The alleged instruction from Tymoshenko directed the lawmaker to support dismissing several senior officials, including Vasyl Malyuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal, and Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. The same alleged instruction also directed the member of Parliament to vote against appointing Fedorov as defense minister, Shmyhal as energy minister, and Denys Maslov as justice minister, NABU stated.

In fragments of an audio recording published by NABU as part of the video, Tymoshenko allegedly offered “10” as an advance payment for actions to be taken during parliamentary sessions, a figure that Ukrainian media speculate refers to $10,000. In the same recording, Tymoshenko also allegedly referred to a plan to “take down the majority” by voting against certain parliamentary initiatives.

At the end of the NABU video, the speaker appears with her face blurred, though she is recognizable as Tymoshenko.

Tymoshenko Calls Probe Political

Tymoshenko confirmed that investigators searched the Batkivshchyna party office in Kyiv, saying in a social media post on Jan. 14 that the “urgent investigative actions” lasted through the night and had “nothing to do with law or justice.”

Tymoshenko said more than 30 armed men entered the party office without presenting documents, calling the search a “grand PR stunt.”

“They found nothing, so they just took my work phones, parliamentary documents, and personal savings, all of which are fully declared in my official statement of assets,” she wrote. “I categorically reject all the absurd accusations.”

Tymoshenko also suggested the investigation was politically motivated and linked to political competition.

“It seems the elections are much closer than they appeared, and someone has decided to start clearing out the competition,” she wrote.

The accusations come after NABU said on Dec. 29, 2025, that it had uncovered what it described as an “organized criminal group” involving lawmakers who allegedly received cash in exchange for parliamentary votes.

“To organize voting, members of the group sent instructions with bill numbers in a specially created WhatsApp messenger group,” NABU said in a statement. “After the voting, certain MPs were systematically handed cash payments.”

Tymoshenko, who served as prime minister in 2005 and again from 2007 to 2010, leads Batkivshchyna, which currently holds 25 seats in the 450-member Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament.