Volodymyr Zelenskyy — the Ukrainian leader who suspended elections, dissolved rival parties, sanctioned a political opponent on suspicion of "high treason," consolidated Ukraine's media outlets, banned a Christian denomination, and remains president despite his term officially ending 18 months ago — rose to power on a pledge to give Ukrainians "a life without corruption, without bribes."Zelenskyy's hold on power, however, now appears uncertain, as it is threatened by a historic corruption scandal that has swept up some of his closest allies.Zelenskyy, allies prove unable to hinder probeEarlier this year, the Ukrainian president and his closest aides attempted to neutralize the independent anti-corruption agencies that were scrutinizing Zelenskyy's inner circle.In July, Zelenskyy's party pushed through legislation stripping Ukraine's National Anticorruption Bureau of its independence and giving the prosecutor general, a Zelenskyy appointee, oversight. This took place the day after the State Bureau of Investigation — which is helmed by a Zelenskyy loyalist — arrested NABU officials and conducted numerous raids of corruption fighters' homes.'Zelensky faces a day of reckoning.'The director of the anti-corruption bureau, Semen Kryvonos, indicated at the time that "this pressure campaign is a direct response to the effectiveness of our investigations, including those targeting high-ranking officials and members of Parliament."RELATED: Orbán emphasizes to Trump that Hungary survives today as Christian 'island of difference in a liberal ocean' Photo by TETIANA DZHAFAROVA/AFP via Getty ImagesThe Financial Times indicated that in the face of mass protests and outrage from Ukraine's Western partners, Zelenskyy and his allies ultimately had to abandon their efforts to torpedo the 15-month investigation.Zelenskyy desperately condemns his close alliesDespite the obstacles erected by the regime, the anti-corruption investigation conducted by NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office exposed an alleged $100 million kickback scheme in which Zelenskyy officials and business figures allegedly conspired to force suppliers to Ukraine's nuclear power company, Energoatom, to pay kickbacks valued at 10%-15% of each contract's value.In their searches of suspects' residences, law enforcement reportedly found duffel bags filled with cash and, in one case, a Kyiv apartment with a golden toilet.Kryvonos indicated the funds allegedly pilfered as part of the scheme have largely been dispersed through a number of foreign nations and used to purchase property and other assets, reported the Wall Street Journal.The Ukrainian president — who was "floored" by the scale of the charges made against members of his ruling clique, sources in the government told the Economist — has done his apparent best to distance himself from those named in the criminal corruption probe, which has been dubbed Operation Midas.For instance, Zelenskyy, who was not named in the corruption probe, imposed sanctions last week on one of his closest associates and former business partner, Timur Mindich.Mindich, who fled to Israel just prior to NABU's Nov. 10 raids, has been charged with allegedly managing a criminal organization that laundered millions of dollars.Mindich is reportedly a close business associate of Israeli-Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoysky, a backer of Zelenskyy's presidential campaign who was arrested by the Security Service of Ukraine in 2023 on fraud and money-laundering charges, and a relative of Leonid Mindich, who was arrested by Ukrainian anti-corruption authorities earlier this year on charges of embezzling $16 million from an electric power company.Zelenskyy also asked his ministers of justice and energy — German Halushchenko and Svitlana Grynchuk — to resign last week, stating, "This is also a matter of trust. If there are accusations, they must be addressed. The decision to dismiss them from office is prompt and necessary."Grynchuk said in a Facebook post, "There have been no violations of the law in the course of my personal activities."Halushchenko, who served as energy minister until his dismissal in July and was removed as justice minister on Nov. 12, has indicated that he will defend himself against the accusations.According to Ukrainska Pravda, Timur Mindich allegedly built connections with Halushchenko through his relationship with Zelenskyy and then exerted influence over both the ex-justice minister and Rustem Umerov, secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council and ex-defense minister.Although Umerov is presently in the U.S., Ukraine's Center for Counter Disinformation indicated he is planning to return to Ukraine despite reports that he was hoping to stay abroad to avoid charges.Other suspects tied to the alleged kickback scheme reportedly include:Ihor Myroniuk, an ex-adviser to Halushchenko and former deputy head of the State Property Fund whose lawyer claims he was not a member of a criminal organization;former Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Chernyshov, a close Zelenskyy ally who was removed from his position in July after being charged with bribery and abuse of office, then arrested on Tuesday on charges of illicit enrichment in connection with the alleged kickback scheme;Serhiy Pushkar, a current member of the National Energy Commission;Oleksandr Tsukerman, a Ukrainian businessman accused of running the money laundering back office in the scheme, who reportedly left Ukraine for Israel and denies wrongdoing; andDmytro Basov, former head of the Energoatom security department, who also denied any wrongdoing.Daria Kaleniuk, executive director at the Anti-Corruption Action Center in Kyiv, told France 24 on Monday that the investigation is far from over and that Zelenskyy has to look very closely into his closest inner circle, starting with his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, who Kaleniuk claimed is wielding unconstitutional powers in the country and is at the heart of the problem."If there will be more attempts from Zelenskyy to attack anti-corruption bodies like there was attempt[ed] in summer, there would be also for me the clear signal that Volodomyr Zelenskyy didn't learn his lesson," added Kaleniuk.Sources close to the anti-corruption bodies made clear to the Economist that the investigation's next phase may focus on corruption in the defense sector, which may prompt greater demands for a full reset of the Ukrainian government."Zelenskyy faces a day of reckoning," a senior official told the Economist. "The choice isn’t great. Either he amputates a leg, or he gets an infection going through the whole body and dies.""I think that right now, both society and the political class understand that a political crisis would be too dangerous," Volodymyr Fesenko, a political scientist based in Kyiv, told the Financial Times. "A lot depends on the next steps of the investigation, if new information comes out that involves Zelenskyy or the office of the president ... then of course, it'll be a new round."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

With the launch of Operation Charlotte's Web in North Carolina over the weekend, some have speculated that law enforcement has stumbled upon a large number of illegal aliens in a major city. Social media was set ablaze on Monday and Tuesday as early reports were released about school attendance in one of the largest school districts in the country. 'President Trump and Secretary Noem will step up to protect Americans when sanctuary politicians won’t.'On Monday night, WSOC-TV reporter Joe Bruno posted on X: "A spokesperson for Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools says unofficial attendance data from today indicates that approximately 20,935 students were absent from school today. This accounts for approximately 15% of students enrolled in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools."RELATED: 'Climbing into the ceiling tiles': DHS immigration raids hit Charlotte, where 1 in 6 residents are foreign-born Photo by Ryan Murphy/Getty ImagesStephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and homeland security adviser, highlighted the report, saying, "So a conservative estimate is that one-seventh of a major southern public school district is here illegally."According to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools attendance data obtained by Blaze News, attendance did indeed drop precipitously on the Monday following the commencement of Operation Charlotte's Web. Data from November 17 reveals that 30,399 students were absent, a number significantly higher than early reports suggested. Only 79.0% of the 145,030 students enrolled in the district attended school on Monday. The vast majority of those absences, moreover — 28,136 — were marked as unexcused. Blaze News also obtained data from the previous Monday. On Nov. 10, 132,043 of the 144,909 students enrolled, or 91.1%, were in attendance. Only 12,866 students were absent, most, again, unexcused. This constitutes a roughly 12% drop in attendance week over week, though there are likely other factors that contributed to this significant drop. Operation Charlotte's Web, one of the Trump administration's latest immigration enforcement operations, was launched on Saturday. The operation is set to target Charlotte, North Carolina, a well-known sanctuary city where one out of every six residents was born in a foreign country. "Americans should be able to live without fear of violent criminal illegal aliens hurting them, their families, or their neighbors,” Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a press release Saturday. “We are surging DHS law enforcement to Charlotte to ensure Americans are safe and public safety threats are removed. There have been too many victims of criminal illegal aliens. President Trump and Secretary Noem will step up to protect Americans when sanctuary politicians won’t.”Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

EPIC City was a massive Islamic compound being built in East Plano, Texas, but apparently the name was a little too much. And so the city is undergoing a rebrand.“It’s no longer EPIC City. They decided that’s causing a PR problem. Now we are going to rename this. We’re not going to stop. We’re just going to rename it something very seemingly innocuous and inviting called ‘The Meadow,’” BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey explains on "Relatable."“So this is not supposed to be a separate city, but it’s supposed to just be a neighborhood that happens to be extremely friendly to Muslims, but the same concerns exist. This would be a 402-acre community that includes over a thousand homes, a K-12 Islamic school, a mosque, senior and assisted living, apartments, clinics, shops, a community college, and sports fields,” she continues.In a 3D rendering of the Meadow, Stuckey notes that it looks “very beautiful” but that it’s not centered on a beautiful idea.“Legally, they wouldn’t be able to tell someone who is Jewish or who is Christian, ‘Hey, get out of here. You can’t move here.’ But that is essentially what it is for,” Stuckey says.“There would be a lot of controversy if any other religion besides Islam or besides one of those Eastern religions was doing this. And the reason why people are upset about it, at least people on the right, Christian conservatives, is simply because of the cultural change that it causes,” she continues.While many on the left see nothing wrong with a melting pot of religions, Stuckey points out that we “don’t believe in moral relativism.”“When you have a people who believe entirely in Sharia, who have an entirely different view of women and human worth and rights and right and wrong, it is totally fair to ask: Is that congruent with the Constitution? Is that congruent with the American community that we have created?” she asks.“The problem — Charlie Kirk talked about this a lot — is not individual Muslims. It’s Islam as an ideology. Islam as a collective belief system. And when you look throughout the world at the fruit of Islamic collectivism, the result has been chaos and violence and the degradation of the human person and human dignity. That is just true,” she continues.“Not all belief systems are the same,” she says. “Not all worldviews have the same fruit.”And they’re not the same.“When you know that about 99% of all worldwide designated terrorist groups are Islamic, you have a good reason to say, ‘Huh, do we want a high concentration of people who buy into that ideology to have their own basically independent system here in the United States or in the state of Texas?’” Stuckey says. “Completely justified.”Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

President Donald Trump called on Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr to investigate ABC News and consider pulling its license for its “fake” reporting.'I think the license should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake and it’s so wrong.'During Trump’s bilateral meeting with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, an ABC News reporter pressed the president about the delayed release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein.“Why wait for Congress to release the Epstein files? Why not just do it now?” the ABC reporter asked.“It’s not the question that I mind; it’s your attitude,” Trump replied. “It’s the way you ask these questions. You start off with a man who’s highly respected, asking him a horrible, insubordinate, and just a terrible question. You could even ask that same exact question nicely.”“You’re a terrible person and a terrible reporter,” the president remarked. Trump reiterated that he had “nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein,” adding, “I threw him out of my club many years ago because I thought he was a sick pervert.”RELATED: With Trump's blessing, House approves resolution to release the Epstein files: 'We have nothing to hide' President Donald Trump, Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty ImagesHe slammed the legacy media outlet for ignoring the relationships liberal political figures had with the sex predator. “All these guys were friends of his. You don’t even talk about those people,” Trump said. “I just got a little report, and I put it in my pocket, of all the money [Epstein has] given to Democrats. He gave me none. Zero.”He called ABC a “crappy company.”RELATED: Epstein emails SHAME Obama/Clinton ally: Larry Summers quits public life amid calls for Harvard to cut ties Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images“I think the license should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake and it’s so wrong,” Trump declared, presumably referring to the news outlet’s broadcasting license obtained through the Federal Communications Commission.“We have a great … chairman, who should look at that,” he added. “I think when you come in and when you’re 97% negative to Trump and then Trump wins the election in a landslide, that means obviously your news is not credible and you’re not credible as a reporter.”Trump told the ABC News reporter that she could not ask any more questions during the bilateral meeting.ABC and the FCC did not respond to a request for comment. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

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