Ukraine's Anti-Corruption Campaign Quietly Advances Despite War With Russia

Ukrainian authorities this week announced their intention to launch a new anti-corruption portal through which whistleblowers can report those suspected of abuses, and possibly even be paid if a suspect is later convicted by the courts.

Oleksandr Novikov, the head of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, said whistleblowers prompting successful prosecutions will be able to keep 10 percent of the proceeds of the case in question, up to a maximum of 14 million hryvnias ($380,000). The portal—on which Kyiv has collaborated with the European Union Anti-Corruption Initiative—will launch in September.

The project is the latest effort by the Ukrainian government to bolster its anti-corruption credentials, as the country seeks to win its existential war with Russia and cement its place in the Euro-Atlantic community. Now an EU candidate country, Ukraine is working through seven reform requirements set by the bloc before official membership negotiations can begin.

Among them is the demand to "further strengthen the fight against corruption, in particular at high level, through proactive and efficient investigations, and a credible track record of prosecutions and convictions." The bloc also wants Kyiv to take more action against money laundering and enforce a new oligarch law.

Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and the chair of the body's foreign affairs committee, told Newsweek that Ukraine's anti-corruption push is central to Kyiv's long-term geopolitical ambitions.

"When we communicate with our partners, we mention the issue of corruption and the struggle against it," he said. "We have already created and developed a rather efficient anti-corruption system. No one is above the law in this regard, and we can see that members of parliament and judges of the Supreme Court are being brought to justice for corruption."

"We understand how important the struggle against corruption is because we don't want to lose trust of our partners, especially when it comes to Ukraine's accession to the EU," Merezhko added.

"There is political will on the part of Ukraine to do everything to start negotiations regarding EU accession this year. Starting negotiations this year will send a strong signal of support to our society and a strong signal to Putin that [the] EU is firmly on the side of Ukraine."

The 2022 Corruption Perception Index listed Ukraine as 116 out of 180 nations. Though that was nine places higher than its 2021 score, it speaks to the country's deep and stubborn corruption problem.

Ukrainians are well aware of the issue. A recent poll found that 89 percent of respondents consider corruption as the country's most serious problem after the ongoing Russian invasion, while around 77 percent believe that President Volodymyr Zelensky is directly responsible for governmental and military corruption.

Newsweek reached out to Zelensky's office via email for comment.

Zelensky has taken public action to try to address the sentiment. This month, he sensationally dismissed all heads of Ukraine's regional military committees amid a sprawling probe into corruption related to armed forces recruitment.

Anti-corruption authorities are also going after high-profile suspects. In May, the head of the country's Supreme Court, Vsevolod Kniaziev, was detained and charged over alleged bribery. Last month, prosecutor Oleksandr Omelchenko who had been involved in moving the case against Kniaziev forwards was unexpectedly removed from his position.

And in June, another well-known lawyer, Mykola Chaus, was kidnapped from his self-imposed exile in Moldova and returned to Ukraine where he went on to face charges first brought in 2016. Chaus was sentenced to ten years in prison.

In the military and intelligence services, too, Zelensky's government has sought out corrupt and underperforming individuals as Kyiv honed its armed forces to meet and defeat the Russian threat. In July 2022, Zelensky sacked Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Chief Ivan Bakanov after a series of battlefield setbacks, particularly in the south of the country.

Months earlier in April, Zelensky dismissed Andriy Naumov—the head of the main department of internal security at the SBU—and Serhiy Kryvoruchko, the head of the SBU's Kherson office, dismissing them as traitors and promising that more suspect officials "will all be punished."

Still, high-profile challenges remain.

Late last year, a scandal erupted related to an inflated $350 million military catering contract that led to the removal of several officials. Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov survived the subsequent purge, though rumors of his imminent removal still abound.

In May, Ukraine's military intelligence agency (GUR) admitted to helping Kyiv City Council deputy Vladyslav Trubitsyn leave the country despite suspicions that the politician had been taking bribes. GUR spokesperson Andrii Yusov said the agency assisted Trubitsyn at the request of another security or military body, which he refused to name.