Ukraine's anti-corruption fight looks like vendetta against reformers in Poroshenko's government

The influential Newsweek media wrote about this.

The author of the article quoted Bohdan Vitvitsky, a former US federal prosecutor who served as a special adviser to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine in 2016-2017: "I don't know the extent to which the current prosecutors are listening to or trying to anticipate what Zelenskyy's administration might want, but there are definitely signs of a vendetta against Poroshenko and Poroshenko's people. That's clear."

Concerns about any mishandling of the fight against corruption under Zelenskyy's leadership could raise questions not only about ongoing support but also about the prospect of reconstruction funds after the fighting ends, the publication warned.

The cases that have shocked external observers the most are those of three technocratic reformers who were highly regarded internationally as competent people, and none of them were accused of abusing official power for personal gain.

These are former Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan, his predecessor Andriy Pyvovarsky, and former Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev.

"Targeting reformers who came into government out of a sense of civic duty and who, by all accounts, did their jobs well, will threaten Ukraine's ability to attract talented executives to enter public service, and it could dampen the willingness of outside corporate investors to put money into reconstruction projects," Josh Rudolph, head of the Malign Finance & Corruption team at the German Marshall Fund's Alliance for Securing Democracy, told Newsweek.

"I've spoken with a number of investment executives, with current and former senior officials in Washington, Brussels, London, Berlin, with figures from international financial institutions who follow Ukrainian state-owned companies as closely as anyone in the Western world," Rudolph added. 

"And it's spooking them that reputable reformers who do not appear to have engaged in corruption are being brought up on charges like these."

The publication reminds that Ukraine's anti-corruption institutions have made progress since former President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted following the 2014 Euromaidan revolution, when NABU and SAPO were created during Poroshenko's term. After Zelenskyy's victory, Western partners expected more progress in exposing real corrupt networks, which were more appropriate targets for investigations.

Newsweek conducted numerous interviews with Ukrainian anti-corruption activists, investigative journalists, members of parliament, businessmen, and current and former officials. When asked which Ukrainian officials most deserve increased scrutiny by anti-corruption authorities, they came up with a very different list of names.

Although Ukrainian anti-corruption authorities have indicted the three reformers, they have not been charged with corruption. Omelyan was accused of damaging the state budget by implementing a policy approved by the then-Cabinet of Ministers in 2017 that cut port fees by 20 percent as part of a broader deregulation push. He was eventually acquitted by three different courts and now serves in the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

His predecessor, Pyvovarsky, was served with a notice of suspicion in March for a similar alleged offense. He is accused of implementing a 2015 policy under which half of the fees at Pivdennyi port were set aside to pay a private company to deepen the port.

Kobolyev is accused of receiving a bonus - the bonus was accrued after the 2018 arbitration settlement in which Naftogaz recovered USD 4.6 billion from Russian gas giant Gazprom.

After the court victory, Naftogaz's supervisory board voted to allocate 1% of the sum to top managers as incentives, with USD 22 million going to Kobolyev and his successor, Yuriy Vitrenko, taking home about USD 17 million. Kobolyev, who now wears an ankle bracelet, faces up to 12 years in prison.

"Legally, officially, on paper, I am the most highly compensated head Naftogaz has ever had, by a wide margin," Kobolyev told Newsweek. 

"But in actual fact, I am the least wealthy, because I never took a single bribe."

"If the three of us really were the most suspicious figures in Ukraine, that would actually be great news," Pyvovarsky said.

He emphasized: "It would mean that Ukraine has become Singapore."

Zelenskyy's Office did not respond to Newsweek's request for comment.

Omelyan says that the cases against him began after he refused to allow a high-ranking official to stop criticizing Zelenskyy and the head of his office with the prospect of a good job offer if he accepted.

"A week later, my house was searched by the State Investigative Bureau 'by mistake.' They said that they had come to the wrong address, but I interpreted it as a warning that I ought to think over the proposal I had received the previous week," he explained. 

"A few days after that, I was invited to NABU's office, and I was informed of the charges against me."

The publication writes: "The United States has given Ukraine more than $40 billion in security assistance since the Russian invasion and critics of the support provided by President Joe Biden's administration have frequently cited corruption in Ukraine as a reason for greater caution."

According to Andriy Kobolyev, the criminal prosecution of him and others looks suspicious - as if it was planned by self-serving officials to discredit people with reputations in the eyes of Western donors to control reconstruction funds.

"These investigations and prosecutions are an attempt to make it look as if we are just as untrustworthy as those self-interested officials are," he said. 

 "We are in court not because anyone genuinely suspects us of corruption, but because no one suspects us of corruption," Omelyan summarized.