KYIV, Ukraine—Ukrainian anticorruption police dropped the teaser for the next episode of its top drama at 9 a.m. on Friday: They were conducting searches at locations linked to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s right-hand man.

“More details later,” the messages on Telegram and X promised.

Eight hours later, Zelensky said his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak , had resigned, felled by a saga worthy of the TV shows in which the president used to act.

Politics is theater in Ukraine. Fights in parliament and trials of politicians have been prime-time fodder in a country where democracy is lively but messy and politicians fear losing public support. Zelensky rose to lead his country after starring as president in a TV comedy show called “Servant of the People.”

Now, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, or NABU, is turning to the theatrical as it competes for attention with news of the front line of Russia’s nearly four-year-old invasion, President Trump’s peace push and frequent Russian aerial assaults.

In the weeks after the investigation became public, NABU drip-fed photos, conversation recordings and text explainers in an effort to capture the public’s imagination and build support. Investigators even gave their probe a snappy name: Operation Midas.

“Publicity is not a good tool for police operations and investigations. But here it seems it was a necessary step in order to resist political pressure,” said Valeriy Pekar , a prominent media commentator who teaches management at Kyiv Mohyla Business School.

Neither Yermak, who had led talks with Trump administration officials on a draft peace plan, nor Zelensky has been accused of wrongdoing. NABU declined to comment on whether searches at properties associated with Yermak were connected to Operation Midas.

NABU, which itself played a minor role in the first impeachment of Trump, hit the headlines this summer, when other Ukrainian law-enforcement agencies conducted 70 searches related to at least 15 of its employees, according to the agency.

The Ukrainian parliament voted to curtail NABU’s independence. But mass street protests forced Zelensky to reverse course and back a new law that restored NABU’s powers. Along the way, the agency became the second-most searched definition on Google in Ukraine this year amid what was already a busy news cycle.

Ukrainians had to wait for Nov. 10 for the next installment to drop. But when it did, it arrived with a bang.

Ukrainian lawmakers attend a parliament session, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine November 19, 2025. REUTERS/Andrii Nesterenko

NABU released photos of piles of dollars and euros, announcing a large-scale operation to uncover corruption in the energy sector.

“15 months. 1,000 hours of audio recordings,” NABU said on the Telegram app. “Details to come.”

An hour later, one of its lead detectives introduced the first minutes of audio recordings with code names for main players in the alleged kickback scheme.

The investigation alleged that Ukrainian officials pressured companies to pay kickbacks for contracts with the state nuclear-energy company.

Ukrainian authorities later said Zelensky’s former business partner, Tymur Mindich, had fled Ukraine before NABU released information about the investigation.

The High Anti-Corruption Court has since ordered Mindich to be held in custody. His government-assigned lawyer couldn’t contact him, Ukrainian media reported. The Wall Street Journal was unable to reach Mindich for comment.

Having one of the detectives lead the public through the case instead of agency leadership helped to establish additional credibility in videos, said Ukrainian strategic communications expert Yaryna Klyuchkovska .

She said the overall approach to Operation Midas could be described as a “big bang”—an explosive release of information designed for maximum impact.

NABU declined to answer questions about media strategy related to Operation Midas.

Over the following days and weeks, NABU released more videos, tape recordings and updates on the case. The voices on the tapes referred to each other by nicknames, such as Tenor, Rocket and Karlson, a move NABU has said indicates criminal intent.

Ukraine’s justice minister and energy minister were dismissed amid the corruption probe. Neither has been charged. The energy minister denied wrongdoing and the justice minister said he would defend himself in the legal arena. An anticorruption court ordered that former Vice Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov be held in pretrial detention. He was released on bail and denies wrongdoing.

Figuring out who was who on the tapes demands a degree of audience participation, as NABU doesn’t publicly reveal the names of suspects per Ukrainian law. The agency even released an explainer to help, summarizing the main cast of characters to help people follow what was going on.

“They are also not stupid, understand?” someone identified as Sugarman said.

“Carrying $1.6 million is not much fun,” complained another, Rioshyk.

The explosive news left members of the public and lawmakers in Ukraine’s parliament demanding more. Many called for the ouster of Yermak, Zelensky’s closest aide who has amassed vast powers under the president, saying he either knew about the alleged scheme, or should have.

When NABU said the search focused on Yermak on Friday, its tone was low-key by recent standards, but it set off a firestorm of anticipation that he would soon be gone. By that evening, he had quit.

The question now is whether NABU will be back with season two.

Write to Anastasiia Malenko at anastasiia.malenko@wsj.com