Latest news with #Shabunin
Boston Globe
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Zelensky's government takes aim at corruption fighters
On Monday, even as the country came under yet another large-scale bombardment in its grueling war with Russia, Ukrainian security agencies directed dozens of raids on Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Special Anticorruption Prosecutor, saying that Russian intelligence had infiltrated the organizations. Advertisement And on Tuesday, the Ukrainian parliament, which Zelensky's party controls, passed a law that — if signed by the president — would give Ukraine's prosecutor general, who was appointed by Zelensky, new powers over investigations by the two agencies. On Tuesday evening, thousands of people took to the streets outside the president's offices in Kyiv, the capital, to protest the moves — the largest antigovernment protests in years. Activists and analysts say these developments are part of a broader crackdown on independent media, government oversight agencies, and other voices critical of Zelensky's administration. And they warn that the efforts threaten to dismantle years of hard-won democratic reforms. 'This prosecution of Mr. Shabunin is the opening salvo,' declared Josh Rudolph, who leads the German Marshall Fund's corruption team, characterizing it as a 'brazen campaign to undermine the entire ecosystem constructed to root out corruption.' Advertisement The Zelensky government did not respond to written questions but has broadly dismissed criticism that it has tried to silence dissent. The director of the anticorruption bureau, Semen Kryvonos, and the head of the special prosecutor's office, Oleksandr Klymenko, criticized the legislation giving the prosecutor general new powers over the agencies shortly after parliament passed it. Speaking at a news conference in Kyiv, Kryvonos said that the imperative 'to fight high-level corruption' was 'destroyed by representatives in parliament.' He added, 'The president of Ukraine still has to sign this law, and we ask that he does not sign it.' In the raids on the two agencies, the Ukrainian authorities detained one employee working with the anticorruption bureau, saying he was working against state interests. The bureau said in a statement that it had worked closely with Ukrainian security services about concerns related to the employee for years but had never been provided with any evidence against him. Meanwhile, the bureau has been investigating possible abuses by people in the Zelensky administration, including Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, who was charged with corruption on June 23. The Group of 7, which represents the world's major industrialized nations, issued a statement Monday night expressing 'serious concerns' about the Ukrainian government's investigation into the bureau and said it would 'discuss these developments with government leaders.' The two agencies were created more than a decade ago specifically to provide an independent check on government abuse, bypassing traditional law enforcement, which was seen as riddled with corruption. They were formed with the assistance of the FBI, supported by the European Union, and nurtured by successive US administrations. Advertisement But the agencies drew criticism from President Trump's supporters in his first administration for what they saw as Ukrainian meddling in the 2016 presidential election to favor Hillary Clinton. The agency had investigated off-the-books payments in Ukraine to Trump's campaign chair in the 2016 race, Paul Manafort, leading to Manafort's resignation. As for the prosecution of Shabunin, 59 nongovernmental organizations signed an open letter to Zelensky late last week, saying it 'bears signs of political motivation, abuse of rights,' and either 'gross incompetence' or 'a deliberate attack to pressure' Shabunin. 'Ukraine's allies have been saying for three years that the country is bravely fighting for the free world — where democracies obey the rule of law and do not target activists for persecution,' said Rudolph of the German Marshall Fund. 'If they remain silent in this precarious moment, their words of support for Ukrainian freedom will prove shamefully hollow.' But Europe has largely chosen silence over censure, prioritizing unity in the fight against Russia. Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of the Kyiv-based Anti-Corruption Action Center, a nongovernmental group of which Shabunin was a cofounder, said the Zelensky administration had taken this silence as a 'green light' to target critics. Dismissing the charges against Shabunin as absurd, Kaleniuk said, 'This is the moment when Zelensky and his administration has very clearly crossed the red line, a line that is unacceptable to Ukrainian society.' Leading Ukrainian media outlets also published scathing editorials criticizing Shabunin's prosecution. Zelensky's critics in Ukraine acknowledge a concern the government has raised — that Moscow is working hard to fuel corruption narratives as part of its efforts to undermine Western support. Ukraine relies heavily on weapons and financial support from its allies, and it is seeking billions of dollars more each year to expand production by its own arms industry. Advertisement Shabunin himself noted this tension. 'Whatever it will be with me, we as Ukraine should get weapons from the West,' he said. 'We can, as a society, deal with any kind of Ukrainian politician.' Rudolph said the campaign against independent agencies and activists 'is doing Putin's work for him,' referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'I doubt that is the intent, but it makes it all the more ironic to use Russian influence as the pretext,' he said. This article originally appeared in
NBC News
22-07-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Ukraine conducts widespread searches, arrests of anti-corruption officials
Ukrainian security services arrested officials from the country's main anti-corruption agency on Monday and conducted dozens of searches, in a crackdown that the agency said went too far and had effectively shut down its entire mission. The SBU security body said it had arrested one official at the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine as a suspected Russian spy and another over suspected business ties to Russia. Other NABU officials had ties to a fugitive Ukrainian politician's banned party, the SBU said. But NABU, which has embarrassed senior government officials with corruption allegations, said the crackdown went beyond state security issues to cover unrelated allegations such as years-old traffic accidents. Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International said the searches showed that the authorities were exerting 'massive pressure' on Ukraine's corruption fighters. Ambassadors of Group of Seven nations in Kyiv issued a statement saying they had a 'shared commitment' to uphold transparency and independent institutions. But the ambassadors said they had met NABU officials and had 'serious concerns and intend to discuss these developments with government leaders.' NABU said at least 70 searches had been conducted by various Ukrainian law enforcement and security agencies in connection with 15 of its employees, and that these had taken place without the approval of a court. 'In the vast majority of cases, the grounds for these actions are the involvement of individuals in road traffic accidents,' the statement said, although it also added that some of the cases were about links to Russia. Although the risk of Russian infiltration 'remained relevant,' this could not be a justification to 'halt the work of the entire institution,' NABU said in a statement. Anti-corruption campaigners have been alarmed since Vitaliy Shabunin, a top anti-corruption activist, was charged earlier this month with fraud and evading military service. Shabunin and his allies have cast those charges as politically motivated retribution from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office for exposing corrupt officials. On Monday, Shabunin condemned the searches of NABU personnel. Zelenskiy's office denies that prosecutions in Ukraine are politically motivated. The SBU said it had arrested a mole working for Russian intelligence inside NABU, who had passed information to his handler on at least 60 occasions. Separately, it had detained a senior NABU detective on suspicion of acting as an intermediary in his father's sales of industrial hemp to Russia. A third SBU statement said some senior NABU officials had ties to lawmaker Fedir Khrystenko, believed to have fled Ukraine after the Russian invasion in 2022. A separate law enforcement body, the State Bureau of Investigations, said it had served suspicion notices to three NABU employees for road accidents that had resulted in injuries. NABU said the road traffic accident cases were between two and four years old. Transparency International said conducting the searches without court orders 'demonstrates the massive nature of the pressure by the SBU and (Prosecutor General's Office) on anti-corruption law enforcement agencies'. It called on Zelenskyy to guarantee the independence of Ukraine's anti-corruption bodies.
Irish Independent
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Irish Independent
Ukrainian security service arrests so many key anti-corruption agency workers that it can no longer function
The SBU security body said it had arrested one official at the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) as a suspected Russian spy and another over suspected business ties to Russia. Other NABU officials had ties to a fugitive Ukrainian politician's banned party, the SBU said. But NABU, which has embarrassed senior government officials with corruption allegations, said the crackdown went beyond state security issues to cover unrelated allegations such as years-old traffic accidents. Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International said the searches showed that the authorities were exerting 'massive pressure' on Ukraine's corruption fighters. NABU said at least 70 searches had been conducted by various Ukrainian law enforcement and security agencies in connection with 15 of its employees, and that these had taken place without the approval of a court. 'In the vast majority of cases, the grounds for these actions are the involvement of individuals in road traffic accidents,' the statement said. Although the risk of Russian infiltration 'remained relevant', this could not be a justification to 'halt the work of the entire institution', NABU said in a statement. Anti-corruption campaigners have been alarmed since Vitaliy Shabunin, a top anti-corruption activist, was charged with fraud and evading military service. Mr Shabunin and his allies have cast those charges as politically motivated retribution from president Volodymyr Zelensky's office for exposing corrupt officials. Yesterday, Mr Shabunin condemned the searches of NABU personnel. Mr Zelensky's office denies that prosecutions in Ukraine are politically motivated. The SBU said it had arrested a mole working for Russian intelligence inside NABU, who had passed information to his handler at least 60 times. Separately, it detained a senior NABU detective on suspicion of acting as an intermediary in his father's sales of industrial hemp to Russia.
Mint
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Mint
Ukraine's Has a Self-Inflicted Handicap in Its War for Survival
It is never a good sign when governments accused of corruption raid the agencies and activists trying to hold them to account. This happens routinely in repressive dictatorships including, notoriously, Russia, but now also in Ukraine, which is neither. It's something the country cannot afford, just as it asks taxpayers across Europe to pump tens of billions of additional euros into its Monday, security officers raided the offices of Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau, NABU, detaining at least 15 of its investigators. Two were held on suspicion of working with Russia, but according to the bureau, most were accused of infringements unrelated to their work, such as traffic violations. Separately, security services also inspected the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, known as is, tragically for Ukraine, part of an emerging pattern. On July 11, armed officers from the State Bureau of Investigations also raided the Kyiv home of activist Vitaliy Shabunin and the military post where serves in Kharkiv, seizing phones and tablets from him and his family. Shabunin was accused of defrauding the state by continuing to draw his military salary while on business trips for the Anti-Corruption Action Center, the non-profit that he who said in a Telegram post that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was 'taking the first but confident steps towards corrupt authoritarianism,' is a controversial figure with a sharp tongue. But that shouldn't matter. His arrest was, despite government denials, politically driven. So were Monday's raids, and they're symbolic of a wider problem that could soon have direct, corrosive effects on the nation's war effort. This has all come since NABU accused Oleksiy Chernyshov, a deputy prime minister with close ties to Zelenskiy and his family, of taking a $345,000 bribe on a property deal, an allegation he denies. It's hard to know whether to see this as proof that NABU is ready to tackle wrongdoing at the highest levels, or as evidence of rot at the heart of the system. It is essential that Zelenskiy ensures his international partners conclude the former. Prosecuting Shabunin, who was vocal in pressing for the inquiry, won't help that latest backsliding also comes after the defense ministry in January chased out a respected reformer, Maryna Bezrukova, from the Defense Procurement Agency, which was created to speed and clean up government's arms purchases. Bezrukova had gained praise from Western embassies for ejecting the middlemen milking the process. The agency was supposed to be last month, Zelenskiy's Servant of the People Party proposed a draft law that would offer immunity from criminal prosecution to anyone involved in the manufacture or purchase of arms that contribute to Ukraine's defense. There's a legitimate intent for this legislation, which is to protect officials from prosecution for doing whatever it took to get arms into the hands of fighters in the first days of Russia's invasion. But that time has passed. Adopted in its current form, the bill would amount to a charter for defense industry anyone who, like me, has traveled in and out of Kyiv since it gained independence in 1991, let alone Ukrainians themselves, this is all deeply frustrating. The country has one of the strongest civil societies in the world. Time and again, Ukrainians have shown extraordinary courage to defend the rights they believe should be theirs, mounting two successful revolutions and defending against Russian invasion for more than a decade. Despite all this and enormous progress on reform since 2014, corruption remains this country's kryptonite. Ukraine does by now have some of the strongest anti-corruption institutions in the world. But as Valeriia Ivanova, a visiting senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund think tank, put it to me, that's thanks to the persistent efforts of reformers, backed by international partners. And just because the system now exists doesn't mean it's protected from political interference, especially in wartime when the government wields emergency US, which used to take the lead in pressing Kyiv to tackle systemic corruption, suddenly appears disinterested. But Zelenskiy should avoid the temptation to abuse that space. Europe is very much interested. Its taxpayers are now being asked to pay, not just for US weapons on top of their own aid for Ukraine, but also for as much as $19 billion a year to activate unused production capacity in Kyiv's defense needs to make sure he does nothing to undermine confidence among his bill-paying Western partners that the money they give for Ukraine's defense is well used. Otherwise he'll quickly move from being an asset to his nation's war effort to a liability. More From Bloomberg Opinion: This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Marc Champion is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Europe, Russia and the Middle East. He was previously Istanbul bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
The Advertiser
22-07-2025
- Politics
- The Advertiser
Ukraine anti-corruption officials held after searches
Ukrainian security services have arrested officials from the country's main anti-corruption agency and conducted dozens of searches in a crackdown that the agency says went too far and has effectively shut down its entire mission. The SBU security body said it had arrested one official at the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine as a suspected Russian spy and another over suspected business ties to Russia. Other NABU officials had ties to a fugitive Ukrainian politician's banned party, the SBU said. But NABU, which has embarrassed senior government officials with corruption allegations, said the crackdown went beyond state security issues to cover unrelated allegations such as years-old traffic accidents. Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International said the searches showed that the authorities were exerting "massive pressure" on Ukraine's corruption fighters. NABU said at least 70 searches had been conducted by various Ukrainian law enforcement and security agencies in connection with 15 of its employees, and that these had taken place without the approval of a court. "In the vast majority of cases, the grounds for these actions are the involvement of individuals in road traffic accidents," the statement said, although it also added that some of the cases were about links to Russia. Although the risk of Russian infiltration "remained relevant," this could not be a justification to "halt the work of the entire institution," NABU said in a statement. Anti-corruption campaigners have been alarmed since Vitaliy Shabunin, a top anti-corruption activist, was charged earlier this month with fraud and evading military service. Shabunin and his allies have cast those charges as politically motivated retribution from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office for exposing corrupt officials. The SBU is subordinate to Zelenskiy. On Monday, Shabunin condemned the searches of NABU personnel. Zelenskiy's office denies that prosecutions in Ukraine are politically motivated. The SBU said it had arrested a mole working for Russian intelligence inside NABU, who had passed information to his handler on at least 60 occasions. Separately, it had detained a senior NABU detective on suspicion of acting as an intermediary in his father's sales of industrial hemp to Russia. A third SBU statement said some senior NABU officials had ties to MP Fedir Khrystenko, believed to have fled Ukraine after the Russian invasion in 2022. A separate law enforcement body, the State Bureau of Investigations, said it had served suspicion notices to three NABU employees for road accidents that had resulted in injuries. NABU said the road traffic accident cases were between two and four years old. Transparency International said conducting the searches without court orders "demonstrates the massive nature of the pressure by the SBU and (Prosecutor General's Office) on anti-corruption law enforcement agencies". It called on Zelenskiy to guarantee the independence of Ukraine's anti-corruption bodies. with DPA Ukrainian security services have arrested officials from the country's main anti-corruption agency and conducted dozens of searches in a crackdown that the agency says went too far and has effectively shut down its entire mission. The SBU security body said it had arrested one official at the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine as a suspected Russian spy and another over suspected business ties to Russia. Other NABU officials had ties to a fugitive Ukrainian politician's banned party, the SBU said. But NABU, which has embarrassed senior government officials with corruption allegations, said the crackdown went beyond state security issues to cover unrelated allegations such as years-old traffic accidents. Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International said the searches showed that the authorities were exerting "massive pressure" on Ukraine's corruption fighters. NABU said at least 70 searches had been conducted by various Ukrainian law enforcement and security agencies in connection with 15 of its employees, and that these had taken place without the approval of a court. "In the vast majority of cases, the grounds for these actions are the involvement of individuals in road traffic accidents," the statement said, although it also added that some of the cases were about links to Russia. Although the risk of Russian infiltration "remained relevant," this could not be a justification to "halt the work of the entire institution," NABU said in a statement. Anti-corruption campaigners have been alarmed since Vitaliy Shabunin, a top anti-corruption activist, was charged earlier this month with fraud and evading military service. Shabunin and his allies have cast those charges as politically motivated retribution from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office for exposing corrupt officials. The SBU is subordinate to Zelenskiy. On Monday, Shabunin condemned the searches of NABU personnel. Zelenskiy's office denies that prosecutions in Ukraine are politically motivated. The SBU said it had arrested a mole working for Russian intelligence inside NABU, who had passed information to his handler on at least 60 occasions. Separately, it had detained a senior NABU detective on suspicion of acting as an intermediary in his father's sales of industrial hemp to Russia. A third SBU statement said some senior NABU officials had ties to MP Fedir Khrystenko, believed to have fled Ukraine after the Russian invasion in 2022. A separate law enforcement body, the State Bureau of Investigations, said it had served suspicion notices to three NABU employees for road accidents that had resulted in injuries. NABU said the road traffic accident cases were between two and four years old. Transparency International said conducting the searches without court orders "demonstrates the massive nature of the pressure by the SBU and (Prosecutor General's Office) on anti-corruption law enforcement agencies". It called on Zelenskiy to guarantee the independence of Ukraine's anti-corruption bodies. with DPA Ukrainian security services have arrested officials from the country's main anti-corruption agency and conducted dozens of searches in a crackdown that the agency says went too far and has effectively shut down its entire mission. The SBU security body said it had arrested one official at the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine as a suspected Russian spy and another over suspected business ties to Russia. Other NABU officials had ties to a fugitive Ukrainian politician's banned party, the SBU said. But NABU, which has embarrassed senior government officials with corruption allegations, said the crackdown went beyond state security issues to cover unrelated allegations such as years-old traffic accidents. Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International said the searches showed that the authorities were exerting "massive pressure" on Ukraine's corruption fighters. NABU said at least 70 searches had been conducted by various Ukrainian law enforcement and security agencies in connection with 15 of its employees, and that these had taken place without the approval of a court. "In the vast majority of cases, the grounds for these actions are the involvement of individuals in road traffic accidents," the statement said, although it also added that some of the cases were about links to Russia. Although the risk of Russian infiltration "remained relevant," this could not be a justification to "halt the work of the entire institution," NABU said in a statement. Anti-corruption campaigners have been alarmed since Vitaliy Shabunin, a top anti-corruption activist, was charged earlier this month with fraud and evading military service. Shabunin and his allies have cast those charges as politically motivated retribution from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office for exposing corrupt officials. The SBU is subordinate to Zelenskiy. On Monday, Shabunin condemned the searches of NABU personnel. Zelenskiy's office denies that prosecutions in Ukraine are politically motivated. The SBU said it had arrested a mole working for Russian intelligence inside NABU, who had passed information to his handler on at least 60 occasions. Separately, it had detained a senior NABU detective on suspicion of acting as an intermediary in his father's sales of industrial hemp to Russia. A third SBU statement said some senior NABU officials had ties to MP Fedir Khrystenko, believed to have fled Ukraine after the Russian invasion in 2022. A separate law enforcement body, the State Bureau of Investigations, said it had served suspicion notices to three NABU employees for road accidents that had resulted in injuries. NABU said the road traffic accident cases were between two and four years old. Transparency International said conducting the searches without court orders "demonstrates the massive nature of the pressure by the SBU and (Prosecutor General's Office) on anti-corruption law enforcement agencies". It called on Zelenskiy to guarantee the independence of Ukraine's anti-corruption bodies. with DPA Ukrainian security services have arrested officials from the country's main anti-corruption agency and conducted dozens of searches in a crackdown that the agency says went too far and has effectively shut down its entire mission. The SBU security body said it had arrested one official at the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine as a suspected Russian spy and another over suspected business ties to Russia. Other NABU officials had ties to a fugitive Ukrainian politician's banned party, the SBU said. But NABU, which has embarrassed senior government officials with corruption allegations, said the crackdown went beyond state security issues to cover unrelated allegations such as years-old traffic accidents. Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International said the searches showed that the authorities were exerting "massive pressure" on Ukraine's corruption fighters. NABU said at least 70 searches had been conducted by various Ukrainian law enforcement and security agencies in connection with 15 of its employees, and that these had taken place without the approval of a court. "In the vast majority of cases, the grounds for these actions are the involvement of individuals in road traffic accidents," the statement said, although it also added that some of the cases were about links to Russia. Although the risk of Russian infiltration "remained relevant," this could not be a justification to "halt the work of the entire institution," NABU said in a statement. Anti-corruption campaigners have been alarmed since Vitaliy Shabunin, a top anti-corruption activist, was charged earlier this month with fraud and evading military service. Shabunin and his allies have cast those charges as politically motivated retribution from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office for exposing corrupt officials. The SBU is subordinate to Zelenskiy. On Monday, Shabunin condemned the searches of NABU personnel. Zelenskiy's office denies that prosecutions in Ukraine are politically motivated. The SBU said it had arrested a mole working for Russian intelligence inside NABU, who had passed information to his handler on at least 60 occasions. Separately, it had detained a senior NABU detective on suspicion of acting as an intermediary in his father's sales of industrial hemp to Russia. A third SBU statement said some senior NABU officials had ties to MP Fedir Khrystenko, believed to have fled Ukraine after the Russian invasion in 2022. A separate law enforcement body, the State Bureau of Investigations, said it had served suspicion notices to three NABU employees for road accidents that had resulted in injuries. NABU said the road traffic accident cases were between two and four years old. Transparency International said conducting the searches without court orders "demonstrates the massive nature of the pressure by the SBU and (Prosecutor General's Office) on anti-corruption law enforcement agencies". It called on Zelenskiy to guarantee the independence of Ukraine's anti-corruption bodies. with DPA
