Ukraine’s former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko accused of bribery: Report

Yulia Tymoshenko has served as Ukraine’s prime minister in 2005 and from 2007 to 2010.Published On 14 Jan 2026Ukraine’s former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, has been accused of bribing members of the country’s parliament and running a vote-buying scheme, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) said, according to media reports.In a statement on the Telegram messaging application on Wednesday, NABU said it had served charges of bribery to an opposition party chief after exposing several other lawmakers last month as members of a “systemic” plot to receive payments in exchange for votes.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Ukraine calls on allies to raise pressure as Russia fires Oreshnik missilelist 2 of 3Russia hits Ukraine with Oreshnik hypersonic missile: Why it matterslist 3 of 3Civilian casualties in Ukraine up sharply in 2025, UN monitor saysend of list“This concerned not one-off arrangements, but a regular cooperation mechanism that envisaged advance payments and was designed for a long-term period,” NABU added.A source familiar with the matter told the Reuters news agency that Tymoshenko was the subject of the probe.A spokesperson for the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) also told Ukrainian media that Tymoshenko had been charged after SAPO and NABU officers raided her Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) political party’s offices.Tymoshenko, who rose to prominence two decades ago as a leader of the pro-democratic Orange Revolution and served as Ukraine’s prime minister in 2005, and again from 2007 to 2010, has denied “all accusations” but didn’t specifically address the probe.In a Facebook post, the opposition leader pledged to clear her name in court.Her political influence in recent years has significantly diminished, with her Fatherland party holding approximately two dozen seats in Ukraine’s 450-seat legislature.The probe into Tymoshenko broadens an anticorruption campaign in Ukraine that has ensnared senior ministers and opposition lawmakers.