Ukrainian government raids anti-corruption campaigner, raising alarm

Ukraine risks retreating to its endemic corruption problem – and even crawling towards authoritarianism – activists warn, following the police raids against a high -level anti -corruption activist and opposition figures.

On July 11, the armed police went down to the house of Vitaliy Shabunin, co-founder of the Ukraine Anti-Corruption Action Center. He accused President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of “taking the first measures, but confident to corrupt authoritarianism”, including support laws offering amnesty to corruptions in the defense industry, and by transmitting a selected candidate independently for a key anti-graft role.

This decision even disrupted some of the supporters of Zelenskyy – people who are simultaneous for heavy and potentially parasitic repression against dissent, and that such criticisms against the Ukrainian chief could be used in bad faith by opponents in Moscow or Washington.

“This is the red line that President Zelensky has gone through – and the red line is in a very poor direction in terms of development of Ukraine,” said Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of the anti -corruption action center, the Kiev watchdog that Shabunin co -founded. She said that the State Investigations Office did not have the necessary court documents for the search.

Shabunin was accused of escape from military services and fraud, the prosecutors alleging that, while, while the detachment of the front lines to continue his activism in kyiv, he carried out activities unrelated to his military service. His defense team and supporters claim that the detachment was everything above and ordered by its superiors, and that the allegations are thwarted and political.

The case caused a serious alarm for many inside Ukraine and abroad, even some of those who praise Zelenskyy for having progressed on corruption by signaling it as concern that he can engage in some of the same dubious practices that they hoped to root.

Zelenskyy is committed to reducing corruption when elected in 2019, and many expert observers say it was effective in doing so, but the wave of criticism around Shabunin’s arrest occurs when the president is under intense pressure to fight Russia and keep the living support of the United States and the West which was at risk of weakening.

It is not only the own organization of Shabunin that is concerned. A group of 59 non -governmental organizations and civil society, within Ukraine and abroad, has signed an open letter to Zelenskyy saying that the arrest “carries signs of political motivation, abuse of rights” and is “gross incompetence” or “a deliberate attack at pressure” Shabunin.

NBC News contacted Zelenskyy’s office and the state investigation office to comment but did not receive an answer.

The president was a long-standing vocal defender of the question of the fight against corruption, in particular with regard to the suggestions of the United States and elsewhere that the billions of dollars of military aid that his country receives could be diverted.

“Where we saw risks that something could happen with weapons, we won hard,” he told “Podcast Lex Fridman” in January.

Last year, Shabunin himself rejected the idea that foreign weapons could be diverted, telling the BBC that “all the weapons provided by the Western allies are found in the hands of Ukrainian troops that use them effectively. It is impossible to steal Western weapons. ”

Shabunin appeared on Tuesday in court and was released on “recognized” – mainly released without having to deposit a deposit – until August 20.

The German Fund Marshall, a Washington reflection group and one of the international signatories of the letter in Zelenskyy, said that Ukraine had made “monumental progress” on corruption in the past 11 years.

Nevertheless, “it is always worrying when a government targets its vocal criticisms with fragile accusations in political motivation surveys,” said Josh Rudolph, head of the fund’s funding and corruption team. “Although this is not a sign of corruption in itself, it displays an alarming contempt for the fundamental values of freedom and the rule of law at a time when the international community has rallied to Ukraine because it defends these very values of the brutal aggression of Russia.”

Shabunin is not the only recent arrest to cause an alarm. The Opposition Party Udar, led by former boxing champion of heavy goods vehicles Vitali Klitschko, said that a raid in April on the home of the municipal vice-adviser in kyiv, Dmytro Bilotserkivets-once again, they said, without the necessary documents-was a clear attempt to put pressure on political dissent.

Corruption in Ukraine is a difficult and delicate subject, mature for armament often in bad faith.

Russia uses it as an example to support its otherwise false criticisms – such as Ukraine managed by neonazis – while American and European politicians organize such examples to strengthen their preexisting arguments on the opportunity to support kyiv’s defense against Moscow.

“The question of corruption in Ukraine has long been very politicized,” said Mariya Omelicheva, professor at the National War College funded by the Pentagon in Washington, DC

“Ukrainian corruption is almost always co-opted-either by supporters of Ukraine, or, more problematic, by its opponents,” she added. “This is particularly sensitive in the current American political climate, where the two parties – Democrats and Republicans – have used Ukrainian corruption accounts for domestic political purposes.”

There is also a feeling among some Ukrainians that the “America First” objective of President Donald Trump has enabled officials abroad to act with more impunity knowing that Washington’s demanding look is currently less disturbed by global affairs.

“Our international partners, in particular the United States, are no longer concerned about good governance and anti-corruption and reforms,” said Kaleniuk. Washington “in the past 12 years, has had a powerful impact on the development of Ukraine, and the United States has generally been difficult in terms of good governance, anti-corruption reforms and critical developments for democracy,” she said. “But now America does not care.”

Although it is true that Trump has historically spoke warmly of Russian President Vladimir Putin and seemed to accept many of his war requests, in recent weeks, he has been increasingly hostile to Kremlin and reported renewed support for Ukraine, promising patriotic missiles for Kyiv and prices in Moscow.

It is also true that Ukraine – and Zelenskyy – have made progress in the fight against corruption in recent years. Transparency International, the best known international group that follows this subject, says that Ukraine has regularly improved in its annual “perception of corruption” index – although it still classifies 105 of 180 countries around the world.

However, at the national level, there are many Ukrainians alarmed by what they see a negative travel direction in corruption in their country. Although the immediate fight is against Russia, the ultimate battle concerns their values of freedom and democracy, say the supporters, without whom the struggle of the battlefield becomes useless.

“We are fighting for freedoms and dignity,” said Kaleniuk. If these are lost, “only Russia applauded”.

Alexander Smith and Freddie Clayton reported in London. Erin McLaughlin de Washington, DC, and Anastasia Parafeniuk and Daryna de kyiv.