Zelensky at Seven

Every Ally Who Built Him Has Since Been Arrested, Exiled, or Turned

Seven years after his inauguration, every ally who helped Zelensky take power has been arrested, exiled, or turned against him.

Dear readers and subscribers,

On May 20, 2019, Volodymyr Zelenskyy took the oath of office, brandished the Hetman’s Mace, and promised Ukraine would change forever.

Ten minutes later, the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) was dissolved.

Seven years almost to the day (May 22, 2026, as I’m starting to write this), every person who helped put him there has been arrested, exiled, stripped of their assets, or turned against him in public.

What follows is a profile of twelve people: friends, fixers, childhood companions, and hired voices, who were each, at one point, essential to Volodymyr Zelensky’s hold on power, and what the public record now shows happened to each of them.

---

KOLOMOISKY, from Patron to Prison

Oligarch Igor Kolomoisky first spotted Zelensky’s potential in 2008 and spent the next decade building him into a candidate. Funding the TV series Servant of the People, supplying money and connections, and positioning him against Poroshenko were key strategies. His primary bet had actually been Yulia Tymoshenko, but when her numbers collapsed, Zelensky became the backup. The bet paid off. But once in office, Zelensky stripped Kolomoisky of Privatbank and Ukrnafta, the crown jewels of his business empire, and then jailed him. From prison, Kolomoisky still surfaces occasionally to give interviews:

“Zelensky is Napoleon IV. But soon he will be gone.”— Igor Kolomoisky

BOGDAN, From Power to Exile

Lawyer Andriy Bogdan was the man who first told Zelenskyy he could be president, maneuvered him into the race, and was rewarded with the head of the Presidential Office. By February 2020 he was gone, describing a Zelenskyy who had become a “narcissistic monster” unwilling to hear anything but flattery. In 2026, after the Mindich tapes, Bohdan revealed why Zelenskyy had placed personal sanctions on him: assets seized, awards stripped, and businesses banned.

DR. KOMAROVSKY, from Friend to Fool

Pediatrician and TV personality Yevhen Komarovsky believed in the image. Zelensky visited him personally before the election; his face appeared on campaign posters. After the vote, Zelensky called exactly once, three months later, to offer a Rada seat. When Komarovsky declined, the line went dead forever.

“This was a bad mistake,” he said in 2020. “We got played. As did 73% of Ukrainians.”

RAZUMKOV, From Strategist to Enemy

Political technologist Dmytro Razumkov impressed Zelensky so thoroughly at their first meeting that he was standing at his side two days later. He led the Servant of the People party and became Rada speaker. Constitutionally, he is the second man in the state. When Zelensky attempted in 2021 to push through legislation expanding his own powers, Razumkov blocked it and sent the draft to the Venice Commission. He was removed as speaker and has since come out against a second Zelensky term.

“Today you are a comrade; tomorrow an enemy. For the Zelensky-Yermak tandem, there is nothing impossible in the destruction of democracy, political opponents, and friends alike.”—D. Razumkov.

BAKANOV, from Childhood to Scandal

Zelensky’s friend since age five, Ivan Bakanov co-founded Kvartal 95 and was considered the architect of the president’s first offshore network. Trusted with the SBU, he largely dismantled the agency over three years and was fired in a scandal. He has said nothing publicly since, apparently aware of what his childhood friend is capable of.

THE SHEFIR BROTHERS, from Partners to Outcasts

Serhiy and Borys Shefir co-founded Kvartal 95, shared a Moscow apartment with Zelensky, and received ownership of Kvartal 95 when he took office. Borys rejected the role of courtier: when the war began, he called Russian his native language and urged Zelensky to “wind the conflict down and make peace.” Serhiy fled Ukraine in 2022; Zelenskyy stripped him of his post, and by 2025 he was a named suspect in the Mindich case.

MINDICH, from Kingmaker to Fugitive

Tymur Mindich co-owned Kvartal 95 from 2003, introduced Zelensky to Kolomoisky, and served as one of his principal financial intermediaries. Some meetings were held in Mindich’s apartment, notable for its gold toilet. By 2024, the Ukrainian cabinet informally referred to as the “Kab-Mindich” reflected his pervasive influence. NABU surveillance recordings suggest that Mindich and Zelensky may jointly own Fire Point, a drone and long-range missile assembly operation in Europe currently valued at $2.5 billion. When the wiretap scandal broke, Mindich climbed into a black Mercedes and flew to Israel. [NOTE: For more details on the Mindich Tapes, read the article above. —JBM]

---

CHERNYSHOV, from Schemes to House Arrest

Businessman Oleksiy Chernyshov cycled through Kiev city administration, the ministries of regional development and natural resources, Naftogaz, and finally deputy prime minister, deployed wherever financial arrangements were most conveniently run. The Mindich case exposed his role taking kickbacks of 10–15%. He fled Ukraine the day before charges were filed, then returned under bail and is currently under house arrest.

---

YERMAK, from Gray Cardinal to Defendant

Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of staff and most powerful operative, consulted a fortune teller from Kherson, Veronika “Fenshui,” for six years on all appointments and matters of state strategy. Investigators found correspondence on his personal phone with prosecutors and judges, as well as plans for appointing the leadership of the intelligence services. In November 2025, his name surfaced in the Mindich tapes. Zelenskyy signed his resignation. In May 2026, Yermak was charged with laundering 460 million hryvnias through the construction of Ukrainian “Beverly Hills” palaces for Zelensky’s inner circle. Excerpts from his fortune-teller correspondence added a note of public humiliation to the proceedings. Zelensky spent five days trying to locate $3 million of legitimate provenance to post his bail.

MENDEL AND ARESTOVICH, from Mouthpiece to Accuser

Press secretary Yulia Mendel and presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich were not friends of Zelensky, they were professionals who calculated that lying on his behalf was profitable. Arestovich has since called him a drug addict, then “Ukraine’s main enemy” for rampant corruption and illegitimacy, and, in 2026, compared him to Hitler in April 1945. Mendel’s May 2026 interview with Tucker Carlson went further: on election night, Zelensky told his entourage he had “come to power forever.” Before key negotiations, someone brings cocaine to him. He claimed he needed “Goebbels’ propaganda” when his ratings declined. “He plays the teddy bear on camera,” Mendel told Carlson, “but behind the scenes he turns into a bear and tears people apart.”

---

Every name on this list was indispensable until the moment it became inconvenient. Friendships, partnerships, childhood loyalties; none of it altered the outcome.

The network consumed the people who built it on a schedule that, in retrospect, looks almost predictable.

IS IT PROPAGANDA?® —Read. Decide. Question Everything.