He was one of those who determined politics and the economy in Ukraine almost at will. And he was instrumental in Volodomir Zelensky becoming President. Now Ihor Kolomoiskij was arrested.
It was an unusual sight for many Ukrainians when agents of the SBU secret service and the Economic Security Bureau in the city of Dnipro rang the bell at Ihor Kolomoiskyi’s wooden villa surrounded by forest. When Kolomoiskyi, until recently a so-called oligarch of one of Ukraine’s richest and most influential men, opened the door, an agent read out the allegations that served as the basis for the following arrest of Kolomoiskyi: The oligarch had ill-gotten funds from 2013 to 2020 using banking structures he controlled more than half a billion hryvnia (equivalent to 12.6 million euros) illegally transferred abroad.