German authorities conducted a search of the Bavarian home of Rostyslav Shurma, former deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, Ukrainian and German authorities confirmed.
According to Der Spiegel, the search was conducted on July 15 at the request of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), the embattled public agency that investigates corruption in Ukraine and prepares cases for prosecution.
Shurma was appointed deputy head of the Presidential Office in 2021 and was tasked with overseeing matters related to the Ukrainian economy. During the summer of 2023, he came under scrutiny after investigative journalism outlet Bihus.info revealed that his brother had benefited from subsidies given by the government to solar plant operators in territories occupied by Russian troops.
He held the post until September of last year, when his dismissal was announced ahead of a major reshuffle of Zelenskyy’s Cabinet. He relocated to the Bavarian town of Starnberg shortly thereafter.
According to Ukrainska Pravda, reports of the NABU-requested search of Shurma’s home angered the Ukrainian president, who objected to the “international scale” its investigations were taking. The publication claimed the development was a major factor in Zelenskyy’s decision to sign a controversial law placing the anti-corruption agency under executive control earlier this month.
The legislation, which gave the country’s presidentially-appointed prosecutor general direct authority over the NABU and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, prompted thousands of demonstrators to take to the streets of Kyiv in protest and led leaders in Brussels to warn Zelenskyy that he was putting Ukraine’s EU ambitions in jeopardy.
Chastened by the reactions to the legislation, Zelenskyy sped a bill returning independence to the agencies through the country’s parliament and signed it into law this past Thursday.
NABU has charged 71 current and former Ukrainian MPs with corruption and has not shied away from investigating members of Zelenskyy’s inner circle.
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