Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies have searched the premises of the country’s central bank and the home of one of its employees, in the latest investigation to reach a senior state institution.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) said the searches were carried out in Kyiv on October 21 under the procedural supervision of the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO). It said nobody had been detained and no notices of suspicion had been served, and that the operation had been authorised by a court.
The National Bank of Ukraine confirmed the searches and said fuller explanations would follow once the procedures were complete. It said it was continuing to work as usual.
Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said later that, according to the court order, the criminal proceedings concerned neither the activities of the bank nor his own official duties. He said detectives had been seeking evidence in a case involving other circumstances and other people, and that nothing had been found against him or bank staff.
Ukrainian outlets reported that the governor’s office and residence were among the premises searched and that two of his personal telephones were seized.
Several outlets also reported that Pyshnyi had submitted a resignation letter on health grounds. The National Bank denied that, saying no such letter existed.
Members of parliament linked the searches to Operation Forrest Gump, the NABU inquiry announced in August into the state-owned Sense Bank. Investigators allege that a group took effective control of the lender and channelled 150 million hryvnia of laundered money through it to post bail for a suspect in the Energoatom affair.
The most senior suspect is Iryna Mudra, removed as deputy head of the Presidential Office on August 19, the day she said she had been notified of suspicion. Danylo Hetmantsev, who chairs the parliamentary finance committee, demanded Pyshnyi’s resignation over the case at the time.
The searches extend a run of inquiries reaching into President Volodymyr Zelensky’s circle, after the Energoatom scheme, the money-laundering case that removed his chief of staff Andriy Yermak and the recordings that implicated Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko in a protection racket for fraudulent call centres.
Pyshnyi has run the central bank since October 2022, when he replaced Kyrylo Shevchenko, who left the country after being charged in a separate NABU case. The institution handles Ukraine’s international reserves and its dealings with the International Monetary Fund.
Ukraine’s anti-corruption record remains a European Commission benchmark in accession talks that Brussels is pressing to advance alongside continued financial support for Kyiv. The independence of NABU and SAPO was itself at issue in 2025, when Zelensky signed a law placing both under the Prosecutor General before reversing course after protests and pressure from Brussels.
