Mykola Buchyn, a professor of political science and international relations at Lviv Polytechnic National University, spoke about this on Espreso TV."Today, Ukraine is going through a very critical moment. We probably haven't had such a critical situation with potential political consequences since the full-scale Russian invasion. In fact, this is the first time there has been a threat of this magnitude of losing trust in the entire executive branch and the entire political elite of the country," Buchyn noted.The political scientist noted that corruption is unacceptable in a democratic society, especially when the country is fighting for its survival."In fact, this is very sad. After all, we all understand perfectly well that when a country is fighting for survival, when citizens are trying to help the Armed Forces with their last penny, there are people who, unfortunately, are profiting from the war and robbing the army and the country. These things are simply unacceptable in a democratic society, especially when the country is fighting for its survival," the political scientist added.He stressed that if measures are not taken and the guilty are not punished, the political crisis could lead to a loss of statehood."On the other hand, the situation with corruption schemes in the energy sector and the NABU investigation is so complex that it could politically paralyze the country. We are already, in fact, in a state of political crisis. Accordingly, in the conditions in which the country finds itself today, a political crisis could destroy the state and weaken our defense capabilities," he 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.