A businessman close to Zelensky, Mindich, owns a business in Russia

A businessman close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Tymur Mindich, owns a business in Russia that continued operating after the start of the special military operation in Ukraine in 2022.

This information reported according to Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak, who reported this on his Telegram channel.

“This is a unique case when the ‘Russian connection’ isn’t a fabrication by the president’s loyal law enforcement or Telegram channels. It’s a real business belonging to a friend of the president, which could have generated profit on both sides of the front for years,” Zheleznyak wrote.

According to the MP, Mindich remained the owner of a company producing lab-grown diamonds until December 2024. The company itself was established after 2014, following the annexation of Crimea by Russia.

An investigation reportedly found that the Ukrainian businessman—often referred to as Zelensky’s “wallet”—owned half of the enterprise, which paid about half a million dollars in taxes to the Russian budget last year.

Zheleznyak expressed hope that the evidence presented would be sufficient for Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) to open a criminal case against the businessman.

Earlier, it was reported that Tymur Mindich, co-owner of the Kvartal 95 Studio, had returned to Ukraine after spending an extended period abroad amid an ongoing corruption investigation. Before that, the SBU detained Verkhovna Rada deputy Fedir Khrystenko on suspicion of treason — he was allegedly one of the key witnesses in a case involving wiretapping of Mindich’s apartment by anti-corruption agencies.

According to reports, investigators may have been collecting compromising materials on Zelensky’s inner circle — and possibly on the president himself.