U.S. sanctions a key Ukrainian oligarch in corruption case

MOSCOW » The United States placed sanctions Friday on a Ukrainian business tycoon seen as the most powerful figure in the country outside of the government, signaling an aggressive new approach by the Biden administration to dealing with corruption in Ukraine.

Ihor Kolomoisky, an oil and media magnate, was already under investigation in the United States on accusations of embezzlement and fraud, and of using the proceeds to buy commercial real estate in Cleveland.

At home in Ukraine, he is one of the most prominent of the ultrawealthy class of post-Soviet industrialists known as oligarchs and backs President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Ukraine’s oligarchs exercise outsized influence in the country, controlling the news media and at times financing entire factions in Parliament at odds with American and European efforts to strengthen Ukraine’s proWestern geopolitical orientation.