Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court remanded former Energy Minister Halushchenko in custody, setting bail at €3.9 million

On February 17, Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) imposed a preventive measure on former Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko, a defendant in the “Operation Midas” case, ordering pre-trial detention with the option of release on bail of 200 million hryvnias (about €3.9 million).

This was reported by media outlets.

The court partially granted prosecutors’ motion. They had asked for detention with an alternative bail of 425.984 million hryvnias, but the court set the measure as 60 days in custody, counted from the moment of actual detention, until April 15, with bail set at 200 million hryvnias.

If bail is paid, Halushchenko must:

• not leave Kyiv Oblast,
• avoid communicating with other figures in the case (Mindych, Tsukerman, Myroniuk, Basov),
• wear an electronic monitoring bracelet.

Halushchenko said he is not satisfied with the bail amount and plans to appeal the decision.

Before the hearing, in comments to Suspilne, he called the prosecution-requested bail of 425 million hryvnias a “sentence”:

“This is not bail, it’s a sentence. A sentence because a person, accordingly, will be in a pre-trial detention center. And then, basically, what happens with the case is no longer important, because you are already serving a punishment,” he said.

According to the former minister, among other things he is accused of appointing “people loyal to the ministry” to positions in the Ministry of Energy.

During the hearing, a SAPO prosecutor said that devices seized during a search of the ex-minister indicated that Halushchenko’s wife and children have residence permits in Switzerland. She added that while preparing to serve the notice of suspicion, NABU received information that Halushchenko was attempting to cross the border, so a decision was made to detain him. Investigators believe he planned to hide outside Ukraine.

Halushchenko’s lawyer, however, argued that there had been no notice of suspicion at the time, so he should not have been detained:

“The prosecutor confirmed that no notice of suspicion had been drafted or served. That is exactly what we are appealing, because it is illegal. We demand compliance with the letter of the law,” he said.

Halushchenko stated that he does not intend to evade the investigation:

“I have always been open, I never hid. Is it a secret that my children are abroad? It’s in the case materials. When I gave testimony, I mentioned it,” he said.

Asked about paying for his children’s education in Switzerland, Halushchenko responded:

“That’s a separate question, I don’t want to answer it. But believe me, everything there is done legally.”

He said a godfather pays for the child’s studies but refused to name the person:

“I won’t say—it’s not useful. I have many godfathers, I have many children. They are all wealthy,” Halushchenko told the court.

Before the hearing, he also said his family has been living in a rented apartment since 2022, adding that if they had the money he is suspected of stealing, they would have bought a house or apartment. He repeated that the godfather partially pays for his son’s education in Switzerland and again declined to name him.

As previously reported, on February 15, 2026, NABU detectives detained Halushchenko as he attempted to leave Ukraine. On February 16, NABU and SAPO served him with a notice of suspicion in the “Operation Midas” case.

It is also recalled that on November 10, 2025, NABU and SAPO carried out the large-scale “Midas” operation aimed at exposing high-level corruption in the energy sector. According to the reports, the criminal organization’s main activity was systematically obtaining illicit benefits from counterparties of Energoatom in the amount of 10–15% of contract values. NABU and SAPO also published some audio recordings from the investigation. Among those mentioned in media reports are businessman Tymur Mindych, Halushchenko, a former adviser to the energy minister, and others.