Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday ordered sanctions on an associate and former business partner at the heart of a massive corruption scandal that has sparked outrage in a nation exhausted by nearly four years of war.

The sanctions on a supposed friend of the Ukrainian leader came a day after Zelensky asked two ministers to resign, distancing himself from allies implicated in a giant money-laundering scheme.

Anti-graft officers have said the scheme saw $100 million in funds from the energy sector -- battered by Moscow's attacks -- siphoned off.

Investigators had named Timur Mindich -- a 46-year-old businessman known to have close ties with Zelensky -- as the mastermind.

Zelensky's office published a decree imposing "personal special economic" sanctions on Mindich and an

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