Anders Åslund, Swedish-American economist, diplomat, leading international expert on the national economies of Ukraine, Russia, and former USSR countries, stated this in an interview with Espreso TV."Well, today it is important to clearly distinguish between the reactions of the United States and the European Union. The U.S. has effectively distanced itself from Ukraine. President Trump shows no interest in supporting Ukraine and has also suspended all anti-corruption initiatives both in the United States and abroad. In particular, the application of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has completely ceased. In other words, Washington is demonstrating indifference. This has been reported by The New York Times and The Financial Times, as well as a number of British publications," he said.In his opinion, this does not cause any concern in the United States itself."I don't think the United States will do anything, as Trump completely controls the Department of Justice and the FBI – two key bodies that should act in such cases. They will not do it. But let me move on to the European dimension of the situation. Everything is much more serious there," Åslund stated. The economist emphasized that there are two key actors who are genuinely concerned about the state of anti-corruption reforms in Ukraine."The first is Ukrainian civil society. The second is the European Commission. When Ukraine limited the independence of NABU and SAPO in July, the European Commission reacted almost immediately. Within a few hours, it stated: 'Okay, if you don't want to fight corruption and don't meet our conditions, we will suspend funding for Ukraine.' I believe this was a serious alarm signal for Ukraine, and it will sound again if these corruption episodes are not properly investigated," he said.Åslund noted that the appearance of such a large-scale corruption case in the public sphere also demonstrates Ukraine's strengths."However, it is vitally important that the government carefully monitors developments, investigates those involved, and takes real, tangible measures. Especially given that at least one of the defendants appears to have close ties to President Zelenskyy and the head of the President's Office, Andriy Yermak," the diplomat concluded.BackgroundOn November 10, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau reported that an exposed criminal organization had been operating in the energy sector and systematically receiving improper benefits from Energoatom's counterparties—amounting to 10% to 15% of the value of concluded contracts. The scheme was informally named the "barrier.""The National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office are conducting a large-scale operation to expose corruption in the energy sector. 15 months of work and 1000 hours of audio recordings. The activities of a high-level criminal organization have been documented," stated the National Anti-Corruption Bureau.On the same day, Ukrainska Pravda reported: detectives from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau arrived on the morning of November 10 to conduct searches at the premises of Timur Mindich, a co-owner of the Kvartal 95 studio and an associate of Zelenskyy. The businessman himself had left the territory of Ukraine shortly before this. Later, searches were conducted at the premises of the Minister of Justice, Herman Halushchenko.Detectives from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau also established that the criminal group laundered approximately $100 million in illegally obtained funds. This took place on premises belonging to the former lawmaker and current Russian senator, Andrii Derkach.At the same time, the head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, Oleksandr Klymenko, created a commission to conduct an internal investigation into a possible data leak in the energy corruption case.Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that government officials must work with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau to achieve results in the detectives' investigation into energy corruption.On November 11, detectives from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau announced notices of suspicion to seven individuals in the energy sector corruption case and detained five of the figures involved.