Anti-corruption investigators walked into the Office of the President of Ukraine. Not some ministry, not a municipality - Bankova, the building from which the state is run.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) have begun investigative actions in a case involving a large criminal group linked to current and former MPs. NABU is the service that investigates corruption at the highest level, and SAPO runs the criminal proceedings in the cases it uncovers. Which is precisely why their arrival at Bankova is not routine.

According to investigation details that reached the public, the group was allegedly run by one current and one former member of the Verkhovna Rada. MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak stated that one of the key figures is a sitting parliamentarian, a former member of the Opposition Platform - For Life, who owns a construction business.

A search at the deputy head of the Office

Investigators have already carried out a search at the home of Iryna Mudra, deputy head of the President's Office. At the same time, information is emerging that a notice of suspicion is being prepared against David Arakhamia, head of the parliamentary group of the „Servant of the People\" party, and that another could be prepared against former Office head Andriy Yermak.

Some of this information still lacks official confirmation from the anti-corruption bodies. But if confirmed, the investigation would reach people who have formed the core of power around Zelensky for years. Arakhamia controls the key parliamentary group in the Rada; Yermak was for years among the president's closest and most powerful associates.

And then comes the counter-strike

In parallel with the operation, claims emerged that the top of the Ukrainian security apparatus is preparing a response against NABU and SAPO. Those claims mention Oleksandr Poklad, who currently heads the Security Service of Ukraine.

This is not the first time. When anti-corruption investigations previously came close to the presidential circle, an initiative was launched to limit their independence. The pattern is the same: the institution investigates upwards, and those in power suddenly discover that this institution has a „problem with its mandate\".

Does that sound familiar to anyone in the Balkans? It hardly needs explaining.

And a call for elections, from his own ranks

While the investigators press on, Zelensky is getting a political problem from the inside too. Former defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov published an address in which he spoke of a „systemic crisis in governance\", widespread corruption and the need for Ukraine to hold elections even if the war drags on. He believes the state must find a „legal, safe and realistic mechanism\" for restoring the democratic process.

Former foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has been making a similar demand for months. According to accounts from Kyiv, Fedorov has also won support from part of the pro-Western NGO sector and the anti-corruption activists who previously came out in defence of NABU and SAPO.

That means two fronts are opening around the president at once - an investigation closing in on his innermost circle, and former officials calling ever more openly for elections. All of it while a war is on, which until now has been the strongest argument against any question about how the state is being run.

From here you can see something many will not like: the institution that investigates corruption is doing its job precisely when that is most inconvenient. The question is whether they will let it finish.