- December 27, 2025
- 5:05 pm
- Israel, Video
December 26, 2025, an investigation by Ukrainian Pravda about the escape and life in Israel of the figures involved in the high-profile “Midas” case garnered over 500,000 views in the first 24 hours. This is not just YouTube statistics. It is an indicator of public demand: Ukrainian society wants to know where and how the people at the center of the country’s largest corruption scandals live — even if they are thousands of kilometers away from NABU.
November 10. Morning without Timur Mindich
A month and a half ago, the country woke up without Timur Mindich — one of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s closest friends. Four hours before the searches by NABU and SAP, Mindich left the territory of Ukraine. Since then, he has been more than 3000 kilometers away from Ukrainian investigators — in Israel, of which he is a citizen. For the editorial team of “Ukrainian Pravda,” which had previously found all the key top fugitives, this case became a matter of principle. The goal was set immediately: to find and document Mindich’s presence abroad.
Israel. A week of searching and a sense of deadlock
Already in Israel, the UP film crew faced the feeling for a week that the task might be impossible. The figure in the “Midas” case had learned in advance about the journalists’ arrival, avoided public places, moved cautiously, and clearly took measures not to be caught on camera. Nevertheless, journalistic persistence paid off.
An unplanned meeting
In an elite suburb of Tel Aviv, journalists encountered a man in a cap and dark glasses, out for a regular daytime walk. It was not immediately clear that in front of the camera was the hero of the investigation and one of the main antiheroes of recent months in Ukraine. This moment became key — and pivotal — in the investigation.
Geography and key figures of the investigation
The action takes place in the first half of December 2025. On and off camera:
- Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Kfar Shmaryahu
- Russian-speaking guards of elite residential complexes
- Israeli police
- the store Philosophy in Tel Aviv, associated with Russian oligarch Mikhail Cherny
- Ukrainian businessman Alexander Spektr
- a man resembling former Ukrainian MP Dmitry Shentsov (Party of Regions / OPZZh)
- Mikhail Zuckerman (brother of Alexander Zuckerman)
- Alexander Zuckerman
- Israeli private detective
- elite premium-class residential complexes
- investigators from NABU
- the “Midas” tapes, “Two-room apartment in Moscow”
- and Timur Mindich himself
Not just a video — a document of the era
This investigation is not about private life abroad. It is a story about connections, routes, protection, money, and a sense of impunity that many figures in Ukrainian politics and business try to maintain when leaving the country. The video format is dense, precise, documentary. Each scene is a confirmation that journalism remains a tool of control, even when official procedures are stalled.
Authors of the investigation
- Author: Mikhail Tkach
- Director: Andrey Ignatenko
- Operator: Yaroslav Bondarenko
- Cover: Andrey Kalistratenko
Why it matters
500,000 views in a day is not hype. It is a signal: society is not ready to “forget” and does not accept the scenario where fleeing abroad automatically means escaping accountability. “Ukrainian Pravda” has once again shown: if a person exists — they can be found. Even in Israel.
