TV and radio host, Hromadske Radio co-founder Andriy Kulykov believes it was no coincidence that the defendants in the Midas case included him in the group of journalists they had been gathering intelligence on, as per Kulykov’s comment to the Institute of Mass Information journalist Valentyna Troyan.
Kulykov said that he had been surprised when he first saw his name next to prominent investigators, since he had never worked in this genre himself. However, he later found a reasonable explanation.
The journalist believes that he might have been on the list because the case was energy-related, and he has long cooperated with Energy Club, the largest association of energy professionals in Ukraine, such as developers, manufacturers, analysts, and traders in the energy and electricity industry.
“Which is why I could have been of interest to Mindich’s people and his companies working in the energy sector, in that they may have wanted to use me as an agent of influence. Or someone who could be their source of information that they could not have gotten elsewhere,” the journalist explained.
Andriy Kulykov has officially been in contact with law enforcement bodies. He believes that only the National Anti-Corruption Bureau can give him access to the intelligence collected for his dossier. He also plans to file an official request to learn what data his profile contained.
He mentioned the response by his colleague Volodymyr Fedoryn, who was on the list as well had brought in corporate lawyers, which underscored the seriousness of the case.
“I remember how on the first or second day [after the reveal] he said that he was consulting with a corporate lawyer. This means that the case is not simple,” Andriy Kulykov added.
Previously
As IMI reported, the suspects in the Midas graft case had compiled hundreds of “dossiers” on journalists, officialsm and NABU detectives; these included 10 journalists investigating corruption such as Yuriy Nikolov and Oleksa Shalayskyi.
NABU announced a special operation to expose corruption in the energy sector on 10 November 2025. The investigation revealed that the persons involved in a criminal organisation had built a large-scale scheme to influence strategic state-sector enterprises such as Energoatom.
On 15 December 2025, MP Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech, published a list of journalists whose dossiers had been compiled by the suspects in the Midas case. He received the list from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and shared it with the Bureau’s permission.
The list included: Maryna Ansiforova (COSA Intelligence Solutions, LIGA.net), Yuriy Butusov (serviceman, Censor.net chief editor), Stanislav Rechynskyi (ORD chief editor), Volodymyr Fedoryn (Forbes Ukraine chief editor), Olha Chaika (Forbes Ukraine editor), Yuriy Nikolov (NashGroshi co-founder), Andriy Kulykov (Commission for Journalist Ethics chair). It also featured two late media workers: Dzerkalo Tyzhnia founder Volodymyr Mostovyi and investigator Oleksa Shalayskyi.
It was reported in January 2026 that the police had opened proceedings over illegal stalking of journalist Yuriy Butusov.