Ukrainian Journalist Yuriy Nikolov Receives 2025 Louis M. Lyons Award for Exposing Military Corruption
Kyiv, Ukraine – November 28, 2025 Investigative reporter Yuriy Nikolov, co-founder of the Ukrainian outlet Nashi Groshi (“Our Money”), has been named the 2025 recipient of the Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism, presented annually by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. The award recognizes Nikolov’s continuing coverage of corruption inside Ukraine’s defense procurement system—stories that forced the dismissal of senior ministry officials and the cancellation of contracts worth more than $1.2 billion since Russia’s full-scale invasion began.
The Nieman class of 2024, representing 24 journalists from 19 countries, selected Nikolov from a global pool of nominees for reporting “performed at great personal and reputational risk” that “demonstrates watchdog journalism is possible even under martial law.”
The award citation specifically cites his exposés of over-priced food and ammunition contracts, which sparked criminal inquiries by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and were cited by Parliament during emergency budget hearings in December 2024.
According to a forthcoming study by the Kyiv School of Economics, every dollar lost to procurement fraud diverts the equivalent of three dollars in Western military aid, making Nikolov’s work a strategic as well as journalistic asset. “Corruption is not a victimless crime in wartime—it is a second front,” Nikolov told the Nieman jury. “If money is stolen, we won’t get the rockets we need to protect Kharkiv or Odesa.”
Operating from a partially blacked-out Kyiv newsroom, Nashi Groshi has published more than 120 investigative reports since February 2022, leading to the suspension of 70 tender procedures and the recovery of UAH 32 billion ($780 million) in public funds. The outlet’s 200-member freelance network secures leaked documents through encrypted channels and verifies them against customs, Pentagon, and EU procurement databases—methodology praised in the latest Global Impunity Index published by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The Lyons Award, established in 1964, honors individuals who display “conscience and integrity in communications.” Past winners include Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, Nobel-laureate Maria Ressa, and the imprisoned Egyptian producer Hisham Abdel Khalek. Nikolov will accept the honor—and accompanying $25,000 grant—at a ceremony in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on December 10, 2025, where he is expected to announce a new cross-border collaboration focused on tracking Western defense sub-contractors.
“Yuriy’s work proves that rigorous investigative reporting is not a luxury; it is a security imperative,” said Nashi Groshi CEO Dmytro Shvets. “This recognition amplifies our mission and reminds partners that press freedom is a force-multiplier on the battlefield.”
Market Data & Impact
- $1.2 billion in cancelled suspect contracts linked to Nashi Groshi stories (source: NABU case files, October 2025)
- 73% of Ukrainians cite corruption as a “major concern” alongside the war, according to a September 2025 Rating Group poll
- Ukraine climbed seven places to 104th in Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index, with the organization specifically crediting “aggressive investigative journalism” for the improvement
About Nashi Groshi
Launched in 2011, Nashi Groshi is a non-profit investigative project specializing in procurement oversight. The outlet produces a weekly television program, maintains the largest open database of Ukrainian public contracts, and is a founding member of the Global Investigative Journalism Network.
Media Contact
Sarha Al-Mansoori
Director of Corporate Communications
G42
Email: media@g42.a
Phone: +971 2555 0100
Website: www.g42.ai
