KYIV, Aug 11 – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday has come under fire from his main domestic political rival for his alleged connection to a wealthy businessman Ihor Kolomoiskiy who is under active investigation by U.S. Justice Department.

The European Solidarity, the party led by former President Petro Poroshenko whom Zelenskiy defeated in 2019, said the link between Zelenskiy and Kolomoiskiy must be investigated for any potential corruption and wrongdoing.

“A number of world media rightly focused on the direct connection between Ihor Kolomoisky and Volodymyr Zelensky. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government pretends not to notice the international scandal related to the statement of the U.S. Department of Justice. However, fudging this issue will no longer work, because of too much resonance,” the European Solidarity said in a statement.

The development comes days after the U.S. Justice Department accused Kolomoisky of stealing billions of dollars from PrivatBank, a bank he once owned, then using a vast array of companies to launder that money in the United States and all over the world.

The attack shows that the issue has increasingly become a major domestic political problem for Zelenskiy, who has won the presidency in 2019 due to his anti-corruption platform.

Kolomoisky is believed to have close ties to Zelenskiy. He also has a major influence on the Ukrainian politics through his control over a major television network and is thought to have close allies in the Cabinet of Ministers and Parliament.

In a civil forfeiture complaint seeking to seize commercial properties in Kentucky and Texas, the Justice Department alleged that Kolomoisky and his business partner, Gennadiy Boholiubov, stole so much from PrivatBank that Ukraine’s national bank had to give the institution a $5.5 billion bailout “to stave off economic crisis for the whole country.

The European Solidarity demanded that Zelensky, Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and the State Financial Monitoring Service to fully cooperate with the United States justice system on the charges against Kolomoisky and his accomplices.

The party urged the Ukrainian government to start a dialogue with the United States in order to return the illegally withdrawn from the country of finances, and initiate criminal proceedings against Kolomoisky on episodes related to the facts of financial fraud revealed by the U.S. justice.

"To reveal and neutralize all the criminal octopus of Kolomoisky's agents of influence in the President's Office, the Cabinet of Ministers, the judicial system and law enforcement agencies, parliamentary factions, political parties that promise a 'future' base on the more dubious origin of Kolomoisky's funds," the party said. (om/ez)