NABU published recordings of Tymoshenko’s talks with MPs about paying for votes in the Verkhovna Rada

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) has published what it says are recordings of conversations between Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of the Batkivshchyna party, and members of parliament about payments in exchange for their votes in the Verkhovna Rada.

In the materials released by NABU—described as the “Tymoshenko tapes”—a voice resembling the head of the Batkivshchyna parliamentary faction discusses monthly payments to a group of three MPs for voting. The amount mentioned is $10,000 per MP per month.

“Once a month—it’s an ongoing arrangement for each person. One month counts as two sittings. So we pay an advance of 10 for two sittings. If we reach an agreement today, we fix who is with you, and I’ll give it to you like to a cashier. And then you’ll sort it out with them—after all, it’s not 20 or 30 people; there are only three of you here, it’s a very small group, you could say. But I have to pass on to you what to vote for. Then can I just send it to your phone in Signal?” “Tymoshenko” says.

A text message is also published which, according to investigators, Tymoshenko sent these MPs regarding yesterday’s vote in the Rada: “Tomorrow only personnel issues. Dismissals: Malyuk, Shmyhal, Fedorov. We vote ‘for’ dismissing everyone. Appointments: Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Justice, State Property Fund. For the appointments, we don’t vote for anyone,” Tymoshenko said.

She also speaks about wanting to “crush the majority” (apparently referring to the Servant of the People party’s single-party majority—Ed.), “so we must not give them any leeway.”

In addition, according to “Tymoshenko,” her faction allows bills to be added to the agenda so that they can later be “killed” in the chamber during the vote.

In footage at the end of the video, Tymoshenko is sitting at a table where detectives are counting money.

Meanwhile, Yulia Tymoshenko spoke in the Verkhovna Rada and called all accusations against her false.

Judging by the NABU wiretap that was published (if it is real, and not AI), it appears to confirm the version put forward by Ukrainian media that serving Tymoshenko with a notice of suspicion is directly connected to yesterday’s vote on the dismissal of Vasyl Malyuk as head of the SBU, and on other personnel appointments.

According to the investigation’s version, she gave a command to a group of deputies to vote for the dismissal of Malyuk, Mykhailo Fedorov, and Denys Shmyhal, but not to vote for appointing the latter two to the posts of minister of defense and minister of energy, respectively.

Earlier, a voice resembling Tymoshenko’s on the recording justified these actions by saying she wanted to “crush the majority.”

However, in theory it can be assumed that in reality Tymoshenko acted in coordination with Bankova (a metonym for the President’s Office).

Media already written that for Zelensky the dismissal of Malyuk was a matter of principle. As for the appointments of Fedorov and Shmyhal, both had long been suspected in the President’s Office of disloyalty to the president and of ties to an “anti-Zelensky coalition” (especially Fedorov). Therefore, they may well have been interested in seeing their candidacies fail. But since it would have been awkward to give such instructions directly to Servant of the People deputies, they decided to act through Tymoshenko.

The version that the failure of the vote on Fedorov and Shmyhal was organized at the instigation of Bankova was circulating in political circles as early as yesterday.