On Tuesday, Ukraine’s anti-corruption authorities announced an investigation into alleged bribery involving the head of a parliamentary faction, a case that Ukrainian media and lawmakers link to former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and her Batkivshchyna party.

But who is Tymoshenko? What is the case about? What is she saying?

Who’s Yulia Tymoshenko?

Born in 1960, Tymoshenko is a veteran Ukrainian politician and a key figure in the 2004 Orange Revolution. She became Ukraine’s first female prime minister in 2005 and served again from 2007 to 2010.

She has been a central figure in Ukrainian politics for decades, leading the Batkivshchyna party and running multiple times for president, including the 2019 elections against President Volodymyr Zelensky and former President Petro Poroshenko.

In 2011, Tymoshenko was arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison over the 2009 natural gas deal she signed with Russia’s Gazprom as prime minister. The trial was widely seen as politically motivated, and she was released in 2014 following the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych.

What did NABU announce?

On Jan. 13, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), together with the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), accused the leader of an unspecified parliamentary faction of bribing other lawmakers.

“NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office have exposed the leader of one of the parliamentary factions of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for offering illegal benefits to a number of lawmakers,” the bureau said in a statement published on Telegram.

According to investigators, the suspect allegedly offered bribes to members of other factions in exchange for voting “for” or “against” specific legislative initiatives.

While NABU initially did not name the suspect, Ukrainian media quickly linked the case to Batkivshchyna leader Tymoshenko.

What searches were conducted?

Ukrainian media were the first to report that NABU and SAPO were conducting searches at the Batkivshchyna party’s headquarters.

Oleksiy Honcharenko, a lawmaker from the European Solidarity party, claimed on Telegram that Tymoshenko had been negotiating with several lawmakers to switch to, or informally cooperate with, the Batkivshchyna faction in exchange for money.

According to him, some of those lawmakers recorded the negotiations and later handed the materials over to NABU.

Later, Ukrainian Pravda, citing sources in political circles, reported that Tymoshenko had been formally notified of suspicion by anti-corruption authorities.

Tymoshenko herself confirmed that searches had taken place at the Batkivshchyna party office.

What does Tymoshenko say?

Tymoshenko strongly denied the allegations and described the searches as unlawful and politically motivated.

“The so-called ‘urgent investigative actions’ that lasted all night have ended at the Batkivshchyna party office. These ‘urgent investigative actions’ have nothing to do with law and order,” she wrote on Facebook.

She claimed that over 30 armed officers entered the building without presenting documents and effectively “seized” the office.

“The last time Yanukovych’s stormtroopers stormed us in this way was during the Revolution of Dignity. But even then, they at least covered up their invasion with some kind of paperwork from the Pechersk Court. This time, there was nothing of the sort,” Tymoshenko said.

She described the operation as a “grandiose PR move,” adding that investigators found nothing incriminating but seized her work phones, parliamentary documents, and personal savings, which she said were officially declared.

“I categorically reject all these absurd accusations. It seems that the elections are much closer than it appeared, and someone has decided to start eliminating competitors,” she added.

What is the alleged scheme?

NABU later confirmed that it had served a notice of suspicion on the head of a parliamentary faction, still without publicly naming the individual, and released recordings obtained through wiretapping.

According to NABU, after anti-corruption authorities uncovered a separate vote-selling scheme in December 2025, the suspect allegedly decided to establish her own system of influence in parliament.

Investigators said the suspect negotiated with individual lawmakers to create “a systematic mechanism for providing illegal benefits in exchange for loyal behavior during voting.”

The alleged scheme, according to NABU, was not based on one-off bribes but involved advance monthly payments designed to operate over a long period.

“People’s deputies were expected to receive instructions on how to vote, and in some cases, on abstaining or not participating in voting at all,” NABU said.

According to the published recordings, three lawmakers were allegedly offered $10,000 per month in exchange for the required votes. The materials suggest that lawmakers voted to remove ministers on instruction, while certain new appointments were blocked by coordinated refusals to vote.

At the end of the NABU video, the suspect’s face is blurred, though Tymoshenko is recognizable.

How does this relate to earlier cases?

In late December, NABU and SAPO said they had uncovered a group of lawmakers suspected of selling votes in the parliament as part of an undercover operation.

According to the RBC-Ukraine outlet, the suspects in that case include Yevhen Pyvovarov, Ihor Nehulevsky, Olha Savchenko, Yuriy Kysil and Mykhailo Laba.

On Jan. 1, the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) imposed preventive measures in the form of bail. Two lawmakers were released on bail of Hr.40 million ($900,000) and Hr.30 million ($694,000), two others on Hr.20 million ($463,000) each, and a fifth suspect on Hr.16.6 million ($384,000).

NABU said the new case involving the faction leader emerged after that earlier investigation.

What happened during the search, according to Tymoshenko?

Despite being served with a notice of suspicion, Tymoshenko addressed parliament later on Thursday and gave a detailed account of the search.

According to her, officers arrived at her office at 9:30 p.m. on Jan. 13, when she was alone.

“A huge number of people in full gear, carrying weapons, burst in. They arrived in five buses,” she said, questioning why such a force was used.

She claimed no documents authorizing the search were presented and that she was denied access to a lawyer.

“All the people who were in the office – ordinary employees – were blocked without exception. Their phones were taken away,” Tymoshenko said, adding that officers searched for a safe and seized declared cash savings.

She also suggested that her private phone could now be used to publicize “personal or emotional conversations.”

Who “betrayed” Tymoshenko?

As reported by Ukrainska Pravda, lawmakers from multiple factions spent Wednesday debating a single pressing question: Who had “betrayed” Tymoshenko?

“Neither the ‘Servant of the People’ faction nor other factions had reliable information,” the outlet said.

One lawmaker interviewed by Ukrainska Pravda said they were convinced that Batkivshchyna leader had been betrayed by lawmaker Liudmyla Buimister.

“They say it was no coincidence that on the day the notice of suspicion was served, Buimister left her faction,” the article says.

However, the version circulating among lawmakers appears to contradict the recordings released by NABU.

The wiretapped conversations reportedly captured a voice resembling Tymoshenko’s discussing the initiation of cooperation with the leader of a trio of lawmakers.

The stated motivation for the alleged scheme is summed up in the phrase: “We want to smash this majority.”

Ukrainska Pravda noted that it would be illogical to try to weaken the parliamentary majority by attempting to buy the vote of a member from one’s own faction.

If the published recordings are authentic, they appear to document an attempt by the suspect to draw someone from the periphery of the Servant of the People faction into her orbit.

If successful, this could have allowed part of the monomajority’s votes to be “switched off” during critical decisions and destabilized the faction from within, the outlet wrote.

After more than a dozen conversations with Servant of the People lawmakers, Ukrainska Pravda said the faction is convinced NABU did not act randomly in serving the notice of suspicion. Investigators, lawmakers believe, had an insider – a lawmaker who helped document the actions of the suspect.

“Understanding this, the leaders of the presidential faction spent the entire day trying to figure out which of their own members had signed up as an NABU agent,” the report says.

Within the faction, some suspect lawmaker Serhiy Kuzminykh, while others point to Oleksiy Kuznetsov, another lawmaker previously involved in NABU cases.

“We’re looking for them ourselves. It could have been anyone. I think they’re cooperating so they don’t get caught themselves. And now the NABU officers have someone to choose from,” one influential Servant of the People lawmaker told Ukrainska Pravda.

How Tymoshenko’s rhetoric on the West has evolved

In recent years, Tymoshenko has emerged as a vocal critic of what she describes as Western “interference” in Ukraine’s internal affairs – a position that contrasts sharply with her past relationship with Western governments.

The Anti-Corruption Action Center notes that on July 22, 2025, Tymoshenko voted in favor of a bill that effectively stripped NABU and SAPO of their independence.

On July 31, she was among a small group of lawmakers who did not vote to restore the powers of anti-corruption bodies. That day, Tymoshenko addressed parliament from the rostrum, warning against what she described as “external control” over Ukraine.

On Nov. 16, 2025, Tymoshenko reiterated these views on her official YouTube channel, stating that “corruption in the blood became possible due to the monopolization of power and external control.”

According to her, large-scale embezzlement during wartime was enabled by what she called “corporate reform,” which, she argued, deprived Ukrainians of the ability to manage their own resources and state monopolies by placing them under the supervision of international boards.

Tymoshenko’s current rhetoric stands in contrast to the strong support she received from Western governments during her imprisonment in 2011 by Yanukovych for having negotiated a disadvantageous gas deal.

“The charges against Ms. Tymoshenko and the manner of her trial … raise serious concerns about Ukraine’s commitment to democracy and the rule of law,” the White House said at the time.

Several European governments also condemned the sentence, expressing outrage at its severity. Sweden’s then-foreign minister, Carl Bildt, described the proceedings as a “political show trial.”

The Council of Europe, which monitors human rights standards among its members, accused Ukraine of “criminalizing political decision-making” in Tymoshenko’s case.

Widely considered a politically motivated arrest, she was released within days of Yanukovych’s having fled the country in 2014 during the Revolution of Dignity.

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