The U. S. Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned seven current and former Ukrainian officials who tried to tip the U.S. presidential election for the outgoing President Donald Trump.
All seven are part of a Russianlinked foreign influence network associated with lawmaker Andrii Derkach. The group used dubious allegations to try to start an investigation against Biden and his son Hunter to hurt Biden’s chances of winning the election.
“Russian disinformation campaigns targeting American citizens are a threat to our democracy,” said U. S. Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin.
On May 19, Derkach leaked recordings of what he claimed were conversations between Biden and former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Derkach claimed this proves that in 2016, Biden forced Ukraine to fire then-Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin to help Ukrainian oil company Burisma Holdings escape corruption prosecution.
Derkach’s story was a lie, which has been debunked multiple times. In December 2019, Trump received his first impeachment for trying to strong-arm Zelensky into promoting this lie to sway the 2020 election.
In August, U.S. intelligence accused Derkach of acting in Russia’s interests and trying to interfere in the election.
While Zelensky distanced himself from the scandal, the seven sanctioned Ukrainians actively promoted Trump’s agenda in Ukraine for personal gain.
The group includes Servant of the People lawmaker Oleksandr Dubinsky, who is known for his anti-Western agenda and being the right-hand man of oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky.
The oligarch, who is under investigation for money laundering in the U.S., has been on a quest to drive a wedge between Ukraine and its Western partners.
It also includes fugitive ex-lawmaker Oleksandr Onyshchenko, former diplomat Andriy Telizhenko, Ukraine’s former prosecutor Kostyantyn Kulyk and Derkach’s three low-profile allies Dmytro Kovalchuk, Anton Simonenko and Petro Zhuravel.
The group promoted Derkach’s story and interacted with Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who has been combing Ukraine for proof of his debunked conspiracy theories about Biden. Ukrainian websites Era-Media, Only News, Nabu Leaks, and Skeptik were also sanctioned for spreading misleading allegations that U.S. officials engaged in corruption, money laundering and unlawful political influence in Ukraine.
The websites are owned or controlled by Derkach or Zhuravel, a key member of Derkach’s media team, according to the U.S. government.
Those on the sanctions list cannot do business with people or entities in the U.S. and their property interests under U.S. jurisdiction are blocked.
“I expect criminal action to follow from the U.S. law enforcement,” said Daria Kaleniuk, the executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center (ANTAC). “Ukraine must (also) thoroughly investigate the actions of those people. Unfortunately, I don’t see any movement in this direction.”
Oligarch’s lawmaker
Out of the seven, Dubinsky is perhaps the most widely known in Ukraine.
A member of Zelensky’s faction in parliament, Dubinsky has actively promoted Kolomoisky’s interests, blocking bills that can harm the oligarch.
Dubinsky’s Telegram channel has over 77,000 followers while his YouTube account has 330,000 subscribers. He often appears on the Kolomoisky-owned 1+1 TV channel, where he once worked as an editor and host.
He uses his media platforms for smear campaigns against pro-Western politicians and officials, often attacking the International Monetary Fund and investor George Soros, who he claims controls pro-Western politicians and activists in Ukraine.
Since late 2019, Dubinsky began intervening in U.S. domestic affairs.
Lawmakers Oleksandr Dubinskiy (L) and Andrii Derkach speak during a parliament session in Kyiv on Dec. 12, 2019. Derkach has played a leading role in accusing former U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden of corruption in Ukraine, allegations that have not stood up well to scrutiny. (UNIAN)
He met with Giuliani in Ukraine in December 2019. According to Dubinsky, the two discussed the creation of a Ukrainian parliamentary anti-corruption commission tasked with investigating corruption under Poroshenko.
However, Giuliani made it clear that he came to Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden.
In May, Dubinsky held a press conference together with Derkach, where they published tapes that they claimed demonstrated that Biden interfered in Ukraine’s domestic affairs. Dubinsky then promoted these claims on his social media platforms.
Despite that, after being sanctioned by the U.S, Dubinsky claimed he never promoted Derkach’s conspiracy theories.
The sanctions could deal a blow to Dubinsky’s luxurious lifestyle. The lawmaker is known for enjoying expensive cars, real estate, and travels.
According to the Anti-Corruption Action Center, the lawmaker used to own a company in Slovakia, which was re-registered to his wife. Being a subject of U.S. sanctions can make future dealings in the European Union problematic for the lawmaker.
Fugitive, lobbyist and prosecutor
Onyshchenko, Telizhenko and Kulyk all played important roles in inflaming the scandal.
The Russian-born millionaire Onyshchenko was the first to publish audiotapes of conversations with Poroshenko in the presidential administration. In one of the recordings, he asks Poroshenko to help Mykola Zlochevsky, the ex-ecology minister and owner of Burisma, which previously employed Hunter Biden.
Onyshchenko, whose jet-setting lifestyle involved sailing in the Mediterranean and partying with models and Hollywood celebrities, is fighting extradition to Ukraine, where he is wanted for allegedly organizing a $125-million gas fraud scheme.
He used the tapes to paint himself as a political refugee but was denied asylum in Germany and Spain.
Telizhenko helped organize Giuliani’s trip to Ukraine in 2019, which was supposed to help him find dirt on Biden.
A self-proclaimed lobbyist, Telizhenko first gained attention in January 2017, when he claimed that the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, D.C., where he briefly worked in 2016, colluded with the Democratic Party to undermine Trump’s campaign.
That claim became central to a largely unproven and partially debunked narrative that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Soon, Telizhenko began intervening in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Telizhenko befriended Giuliani and expressed a desire to undermine the Trump impeachment inquiry in interviews with the right-wing One America News network.
Andrii Telizhenko (L) smiles as he poses for a photo after the filming of a show for the One America News network on Nov. 30. Former Ukrainian lawmaker Andrey Artemenko (3rd from L), ex-Central Election Commission chief Michailo Ochendowski (2nd from R) and Rudy Giuliani (R), U.S. President Donald Trump’s lawyer, stand with him. (Andrii Telizhenko/Facebook)
Since then, Telizhenko made unproven claims that Biden fired a Ukrainian prosecutor general to protect his son’s Ukrainian employer, Burisma Holdings.
The sanctions will likely hurt Telizhenko and Onyschenko, who lead expensive lifestyles, travel frequently and do business with foreigners.
The last notable figure on the list is former chief prosecutor Kulyk, who promoted Derkach’s tapes and investigated Hunter Biden to frame his father.
According to the statement by the U. S. Treasury Department, Kulyk, together with Derkach, spread debunked accusations of international corruption.
Kulyk became controversial in 2016 after the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) charged him with illicit enrichment to the tune of Hr 2 million ($80,000). The case was closed in March 2019 after the Constitutional Court struck down the illicit enrichment law as unconstitutional.
Weak response
With the new U.S. administration soon taking office, Ukraine is trying to clean up the mess caused by dubious officials and revive bilateral relations with the U.S., which have largely been frozen under Trump.
On Jan. 13, Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak wrote on Twitter that the administration will “do everything” to hold responsible the Ukrainians who meddled in the U.S. election.
The comment broke the Ukrainian president’s silence after the U.S. sanctions were announced.
Earlier, the Zelensky administration’s communication adviser Mykhailo Podoliak said that the administration doesn’t have to comment on the issue, as that would be the prerogative of the Servant of the People party.
However, the faction’s deputy leader, lawmaker Yevhenia Kravchuk, also refused to comment, saying it was Dubinsky’s “private affair” and he should “answer for himself.”
“I don’t understand how the party is still tolerating Dubinsky in their ranks,” said ANTAC’s Kaleniuk, “If (Zelensky’s) party worries about the remnants of their reputation they can’t be associated with Kremlin agents who attempted to meddle in the U.S. presidential election.”
Reigning impunity
The U. S. sanctions have highlighted a key problem that keeps Ukraine in constant danger — Russian agents in Ukraine are exempt from prosecution. They control much of the media and have strong representation in parliament.
“The U. S. government calls Derkach an active Russian agent, who for years works on Russia’s FSB,” said Kaleniuk. “How is it possible that a lawmaker is an active agent of a country with which we are at war? It’s treason.”
Activists of Anti-Corruption Action Center appealed to Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova to start treason investigations into Derkach and Dubinsky. She initially declined to do it, prompting the activists to go to court, which finally ordered prosecutors to start the investigation.
Derkach, a lawmaker since 1998, is the son of General Leonid Derkach, a former Soviet KGB officer, who led the Security Service of Ukraine in the late 1990s. Derkach himself graduated from KGB academy in Moscow and until recently was a part of the interstate delegation to the Russian Orthodox Church synod.
Instead of an investigation, Derkach enjoyed backing from pro-Russian politicians, most notably Viktor Medvedchuk, leader of the pro-Russian Opposition Platform — For Life party which controls 44 seats in parliament.
Lawmaker Viktor Medvedchuk (C) speaks to members of his Opposition Platform – For Life party during a parliament session in Kyiv on Sept. 1, 2020.
Medvedchuk’s media empire has supported Derkach’s anti-Western narrative. After taking office, Zelensky said the authorities would investigate Medvedchuk’s pro-Russian media empire. Nothing was done.
Instead, Zelensky’s government’s officials and his party’s lawmakers often appear on Medvedchuk-controlled TV channels.
“It’s a matter of national security,” Kaleniuk says. “If there won’t be a harsh reaction (from the administration), those actors will continue to enable the Russian agenda and pull Ukrainian away from its pro-European, pro-American vector.”
