On the latest published batch, fragments of the “Mindich tapes” discuss personnel decisions. In particular, those involved in the recordings talk about who should be appointed to ministerial positions, who should be removed, and how the government should be controlled. Separately, there is discussion of a mysterious “Project 23,” which may turn out to be a so-called “common fund” (“obshchak”) of the participants in the “Midas” operation, as well as a person who may have hundreds of millions in cash in foreign currency. This was reported by MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak (“Holos”), who also published new fragments.
Source: OBOZREVATEL
“In this part — only one conversation between the president’s friend Timur Mindich and, at the time, still Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov. Loyalty is more important than professionalism, personnel decisions are made behind closed doors, and the ambassador to the US is being selected as a ‘convenient’ person. And at the same time, a mysterious ‘Project 23’ emerges with hints of large sums of money,” the description of the video says.
Regarding the latter, according to Zhelezniak, there are currently hypotheses that this project was a so-called “common fund” or an informal cash pool “from which a number of expenses were financed.” In particular, he noted, this may relate to the controversial cottage settlement “Dynasty,” which is linked to former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Chernyshov, where searches were previously conducted.
“They are discussing some ‘Project 23.’ And also a certain person who has 200 — most likely not thousands and not hryvnias, but cash, and who collects 3–5, likely million — and most likely not hryvnias — from various sources. And most interestingly, his driver is paid for by the state. Therefore, we are most likely talking about a person closely connected to the state,” Zhelezniak summarized.
Which ministers Mindich and Umerov “appointed”
According to Zhelezniak, no less important is a discussion from July 2025 — just before the government reshuffle, including the prime minister — about appointing loyal people to certain ministerial and other positions. In particular, he mentions the following posts:
- Minister of Defense
- First Deputy Prime Minister
- Prime Minister
- Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States
“Many of these fragments quite clearly show how personnel policy was formed. How someone was pushed out, how people were moved to different positions. And obviously, all of this did not happen even on Bankova Street… This fragment of conversation shows everything quite clearly and understandably,” Zhelezniak concluded.
Discussion about this post