-James Bradley and Flor Blanco
September 24, 2024-WASHINGTON – House Rep. James Comer (R. KY) is launching an investigation into the use of taxpayer funds to pay for President Vladimir Zelensky’s recent trip to Pennsylvania for the Harris for President campaign. Ironically, Comer compares this alleged act to the quid pro quo allegations that embroiled Zelensky in controversy in 2019 as Trump was gearing up for his re-election campaign. The allegation was so serious that it led to Trump’s first impeachment hearing.
Comer’s investigation at least stirs curiosity to answer a burning question. Is Zelensky a leader for hire?
Early in his administration, Zelensky was committed to bringing peace between Russia and Ukraine, but abandoned that venture, apparently for the interests and funding from the U.S. and NATO. Today he continues to side with the U.S. and NATO but does so with an insatiable appetite for more money and military support. An examination of Zelensky’s political moves during his first few months in office provides us with an answer.
A leader of the people
DECEMBER 2018- During his campaign, Vladimir Zelensky proclaimed himself a leader for the people. His campaign manager was Ivan Bakanov, a childhood friend and business partner. As a popular entertainer and aspiring politician, Zelensky invited people to help him get elected.
It was a request to which Russian interests, represented by people like Vladimir Sivkovych. Sivkovych, responded. He financed Zelensky’s campaign and helped lay the foundations of his administration. Sivkovych worked for the USSR KGB from 1983 to 1992, and in independent Ukraine, he was a member of the Verkhovna Rada, deputy prime minister and deputy on the National Security Council. Funds also came from well-known oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyy, who was linked to Zelenskyy’s entertainment company.
An administration of friends, relatives, and Russian connections
MAY 2019 – After his election, Zelensky gave his showbiz friends high cabinet posts and brought his pro-Russian supporters closer to him. This included Bakanov, who headed the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). Zelensky’s friend and former lawyer for Kolomoyskyy, Andriy Bohdan, was appointed head of the administration, while Oleksandr Belyayev served as a liaison in negotiations with Russia. Ukrainian publication Censor reported that Belyaev is relative of Zelensky, an entrepreneurial tycoon whose firms were linked to Zelensky’s showbiz company (Kvartal-95), and Bakanov’s brother-in-law.
In addition to securing lucrative positions for his friends, Zelensky was rumored to have pro-Russian ties that would help create a power bloc in the new Ukrainian administration. Years later, a treason trial revealed that Zelensky allegedly wanted Belyaev to become his personal oligarch. Ironically, Zelensky’s original administration was similar to the ruling and corrupt oligarchy present in the former Ukrainian presidency, which the population rejected.
Steps towards peace
While running for office, Zelensky made political slogans such as the promise to achieve peace. Among his first foreign policy efforts after his election was a call to stop hostilities and release Ukrainian sailors detained by Russia since 2018 during the armed conflict in the Kerch Strait. The conflict erupted in the fall of 2018 when former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ordered a break in the Kerch Strait blockade, sending Ukrainian Navy forces into Russian-controlled waters, leading to the seizure of the sailors.
Secret communication channel
The records obtained show that in 2019, Ukraine’s newly elected president actually established official contact through then-advisor Yermak and unofficial contact through Belyayev with the Kremlin for peace talks. Sivkovych played a key role in establishing a direct line of communication between Ukraine and Russia. Audio recordings detail how Sivkovych prepared the ground and organized a series of meetings between representatives of Volodymyr Zelensky, including Belyaev, and senior Russian government officials (see Transcript 1). The main goal was to establish trust between the new Ukrainian president and Vladimir Putin. Among the first talks that began were intensive diplomatic efforts to recover Ukrainian sailors from Russian captivity.
These contacts actually took place almost immediately after Zelensky’s delegation’s first visit to the United States in mid-April 2019, which, as noted in Singal Group’s summary of Ivan Bakanov’s report on the visit, including a separate meeting with Alexander Vindman. (See Figure 1) Vindman was to be the star of Trump’s impeachment trial in 2020.
Figure 1. Excerpt from a signaling report on Bakanov’s April 2019 trip to the United States
Figure 1: Translated
This visit would also lead to a small donation by Signal Group to Zelensky’s election, which will be discussed in the next article. (See Figure 2)
Figure 2: Snapshot of FARA form listing small political donations to Signal Group Consultants, Zelensky’s U.S. lobbying firm
In anticipation of the upcoming peace talks with Russia, Zelensky made the following Facebook post in May of the same year : “…the first signal from the Russian leadership of a real readiness to end the conflict with Ukraine”.
Figure 3: Zelensky’s Facebook post on the release of the captured sailors
The release of the captured sailors was largely made possible by Russia’s willingness to establish this informal channel of communication between Kyiv and Moscow. In the transcript of the audio recording below, Vladimir Sivkovych briefs Alexander Belyaev on the key points of his upcoming conversation with the Russian Defense Minister (see below).
Transcript 1: A fragment of the audio recording with Alexander Belyaev and Vladimir Sivkovych, “Conversation in Moscow.”
Vladimir Sivkovych: You say that she is not implementing the Minsk agreements.
Alexander Belyaev: it’s not Informal way to end hostilities, to separate the troops for some period of time, yes, some distance Here, and the personal request of the president he asked to focus on this is to return the sailors who were sent to certain death This is kind of known by all the military that I have, well, and I think this will be the beginning of a process against those who sent them to our country, because evil cannot go unpunished. The people there also could not challenge the order and went to their deaths, and we are ready to punish those who did it from our side.
Vladimir Sivkovych: from our side we will let them go, but this is a process of negotiations.
Alexander Belyaev: well, yes, it’s a negotiation process.
Vladimir Sivkovych: the main thing is whether there is good will.
Alexander Belyaev: we have good will Speaking for Vladimir (note – Vladimir Zelensky).
Sivkovych later confirmed his actions during his testimony at Oleh Kulinich’s treason trial in Ukraine, discussed in a previous article published in Uncensored Beat. (See Figure 4.)
Figure 4: Excerpt from Volodymyr Sivkovych’s testimony at Oleh Kulinich’s treason trial
Figure 4: Translation
Belyaev was also personally briefed by Zelensky before traveling to Moscow. Belyaev was to focus on conflict resolution as the central issue on the agenda of the “secret talks” in Moscow, as noted in the following excerpt from the conversations:
Transcript 2: Fragment of audio recording of Alexander Belyaev’s talks in Moscow
Alexander Belyaev: I am Alexander from Ukraine. I came with a certain purpose and task from the person who became the president of Ukraine today. This is a close friend of mine. He asked me, because I have certain connections in political and economic circles in Russia for many years, to somehow build bridges in the relationship between (note – Putin and Zelensky), because today a number of factors political and economic does not allow to talk about it openly. Everything that could have happened in the open has ended in fiasco. We have right-wingers, it is understandable, not everything is balanced in politics. And plus they make money on it, supporting military actions, do not give an opportunity to settle this conflict.” Zelensky sees a settlement, and what he claims, it may be due to inexperience. That is why I would like your assistance. The first thing is a ceasefire, what you have prescribed in the Minsk agreements.
Belyaev, on behalf of Zelensky, proposed a phased implementation of the 2015 Minsk Agreements. The peace terms came shortly after fighting broke out in the Donbass and Ukraine’s crushing defeats in Ilovaisk and Debaltsevo, as well as Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Under Poroshenko, the deal collapsed after NATO disapproved of Russia’s proposal to make Ukraine a neutral country and reduce Ukrainian arms. In the summer of 2019, Belyayev said Ukraine had changed its mind and was ready to negotiate a ceasefire and implement the “Minsk agreements.” To confirm his agreement, the Russian President pardoned Ukrainian sailors who were handed over to Ukraine along with the ships in September.
Zelenskyy’s dacha
According to the Ukrainian media outlet Censor.net, Kulinich testified during the trial that around June 2019, a meeting involving Zelensky and Belyaev took place at Zelensky’s dacha, or cottage. At the meeting, they discussed establishing ties with Russia and plans to move to Russia (see Figure 5).
Figure 5: Excerpt from Kulinich’s testimony at the treason trial
Figure 5: Translation
Kulinich’s evidence indicates that Zelensky trusted Belyaev and wanted closed (secret) contacts with the leadership of the Russian Federation and was agreeable to the peace proposal of the Russian representatives. Now this information does not fit the image of the current Zelensky. Kulinich has been arrested for treason against the Motherland and is undergoing closed court hearings, so his testimony may be questioned. Belyaev’s flights to Moscow, on the other hand, are confirmed by flight records and a receipt for airfare from Sivkovych’s personal account (see Figure 6).
Figure 6: Receipt of air tickets to Moscow purchased for Belyaev for June 2019 from
Sivkovych’s personal bank account.
Figure 6: Translated
Around July, Belyaev gave Sivkovych a gift for the Russian President from Zelensky. Before Belyaev left for Russia, Sivkovych advised Zelensky to give Putin a copy of one of the Russian president’s favorite writers, Ernest Hemingway’s “Goodbye, Guns!” as a symbolic gesture Ernest Hemingway (see Figure 7). The book was given to Putin from Vladimir Zelensky’s personal library. The Ukrainian president signed the rare edition of the legendary work with a gift inscription to Putin: “Peace is the highest good that people want in this life. And life is one.”
Figure 7: Zelensky’s gift book for Vladimir Putin
Meanwhile in the U.S. …
By fall 2019, Trump’s lawyer Rudy Guiliani, known for handling the first U.S. federal racketeering case, had visited Ukraine at least four times since January. In keeping with Trump’s policy of scrutinizing U.S. funds and providing an equal share of fiscal aid to NATO-supporting countries, Guiliani met mostly with Lutsenko, who was Ukraine’s attorney general at the time.
Reports of the purpose of the meetings vary. Some say the intention was to clear Paul Manafort’s and Trump’s names in connection with the 2016 “Russian collusion” scandal. Others point to the discussion of international fraud charges against the owner of Privat Bank, which was prosecuted in Delaware in May 2019. Most notorious was the reported talk of questionable activities at the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, where Hunter Biden, the president’s son, held a seat on the board of directors until April 2019. More on that in the next issue.
These meetings, apparently in keeping with the U.S. administration’s anti-corruption efforts in the region, were the setting for a “perfect phone call.”
The perfect phone call
JULY 2019-President Trump had a phone conversation with President Zelensky on July 25tһ. During the call, Trump asked Zelensky to investigate several issues in the interest of the United States. (See Figure 8).
Figure 8: An excerpt of Trump’s July 2019 conversation with Zelensky
Figure 8 (continued)
Figure 8 (continued)
Figure 8 (continued)
Figure 8 (continued)
This call will spark a national debate that will eventually lead to further divisions between the Republican and Democratic political parties in the United States and to Trump’s first impeachment process. More on this in a future article.
Back to Zelensky. Ukraine in the fall of 2019
SEPTEMBER 2019 – Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine ended with the successful return of the captured Ukrainian sailors on September 7tһ. The event signaled a deepening of Russia’s ties with Ukraine.
The next day, Zelensky met with Ihor Kolomoisky, for the first time since Zelensky’s election. Kolomoisky is no friend of either Russia or the United States. He is a billionaire and alleged mobster who helped finance Zelensky’s presidential campaign. He also owned the broadcast network that aired Zelensky’s former TV show. He was also a defendant in criminal money laundering cases in the United States. His partner in some of his businesses, N. Zlachevsky, was a prime suspect in scandals related to the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor whom Trump mentioned in his conversation with Zelensky in July and in anti-corruption meetings that Guiliani held earlier this year.
The Trump administration’s awareness that Zelensky had a confidant in Kolomoisky is questionable. Despite the meeting, Trump approved a $250 million military disbursement to Ukraine on Sept. 12 .th
Already by September 19th, U.S. Congressman Adam Schiff had made headlines with his personal version of the July phone call between Trump and Zelensky.
Memorable October
In the US, events related to Ukraine have become the core of a Pandora’s box with quid pro quo scandals, calls for Trump’s impeachment and growing interest in the Biden family’s ties to Burisma. Ukrainian lawmaker Derkach (suspected of treason in Ukraine) succumbed to pressure from the Zelensky administration. In October, he submitted a list of payments for Burisma to Hunter Biden and Devon Archer’s firm Rosemont Seneca. (See Figures 9 and 10.)
Figure 9: X tweet documenting Derkach’s submission of evidence to the Trump administration
Translation for Figure 9:
Was not transferred to the Ukrainian law enforcement authorities.
At the same time, during the investigation, information was received about the veiled transfer of funds for lobbying activities to J. Biden personally by transferring funds in the amount of 900,000 USD to the account of the above-mentioned American company “Rosemont Seneca Partners” (LLC) with the designation of payment for consulting services. In the course of the investigation, information was obtained about the disguised transfer of funds for lobbying activities to J. Biden personally by transferring funds in the amount of $900,000 to the account of the above-mentioned American company Rosemont Seneca Partners (LLC) with the designation of payment for consulting services. During the investigation, one person was identified and questioned as a witness. I directly carried out money laundering and legalization operations in favor of M.V. Zlochevsky and the Biden family. The originals of payment documentation and technical devices with the help of which these procedures were carried out are available.
Using political and economic leverage to undermine the Ukrainian government and manipulating the issue of financial aid to Ukraine, Biden actively contributed to the closure of criminal cases against M.V. Zlochevsky and Burisma Group officials.
Figure 10: Second tweet X documenting Derkach’s transfer of evidence to the Trump administration
Figure 10 (continued)
End of the year
NOVEMBER 2019 – By this time, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives had rolled up their sleeves to set the stage for President Trump’s impeachment, using Trump’s phone call with Zelensky as an excuse. In an article published on CNN at the time, Zelensky shared his reaction to these machinations in the U.S. “I think everyone in Ukraine is so tired of Burisma…. We have our country, we have our independence, we have our problems and issues.” His fickle demeanor was in stark contrast to his willingness to comply, expressed in a phone conversation with Trump in July, before he received $250 million in funding (see Figure 4).
DECEMBER 2019- It seems that at the dawn of his presidency, Zelensky was serious about negotiations with Moscow and did not avoid informal contacts with the Kremlin. Zelensky and Putin met face-to-face at the global Normandy Four summit in Paris.There was a presentation of the Minsk agreements to reluctant NATO members.
“For a president determined to negotiate, the Normandy Four summit in Paris on December 9, 2019, was supposed to be a turning point: a bilateral meeting with Putin was expected to provide a way out of the impasse. Zelensky wanted to demonstrate that, unlike Poroshenko, he could reach an effective peace agreement,” publicist Viktor Karvatsky wrote in an article about the summit. The talks went nowhere.
In the U.S., December was the beginning of a journey for Guiliani, who will continue the investigation into Hunter and Joe Biden’s ties to the Ukrainian energy company Bursima, owned by gas oligarch N. Zlachevsky.
Is the world a stage Z?
Since the creation of an independent state, Ukraine continues to be a country that is being fought over by very strong world powers – NATO and Russia. Zelensky, a well-known entertainer and now president, has demonstrated success in his first few months in office by entertaining a number of world leaders and notables personally and through his delegation. And these people don’t necessarily like each other – Trump, Putin, Merkel, Kolomoisky, Sivkovych and others yet to be named. Interestingly, each of them indirectly came to Zelensky’s table with money in hand.
We as a nation must ask, should we continue to go along with Zelensky? How much money can we as a nation allocate for Ukraine?
Our next articles will delve deeper into Zelensky’s reign after 2019, including an analysis of the Russian occupation in February 2022 that brought us to our current situation. We will also look at Zelensky’s interesting ties to specific organizations that affect the current political climate in the United States and possibly the November 2024 election.