US Senators Jeanne Shaheen (Democrat, member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee) and Lindsey Graham (Republican) have issued a statement after Ukraine passed a law restricting the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP).
“Ukraine has made huge strides in its anti-corruption programme since the Dignity Revolution. Remarkably, this progress was made while Ukraine was fighting against Russian aggression, which is a testament to the extraordinary will of the Ukrainian people. We fear that the Verkhovna Rada’s recent approval of the law signed by President Zelensky undermines much of this progress and runs counter to Ukraine’s tremendous fighting spirit, as well as the expectations of Ukraine’s citizens and the international community,” the statement reads.
The senators note that one of the most common arguments for ending support for Ukraine is that corruption reigns in the country.
But Shaheen and Graham recognise that Ukraine continues to make progress on the anti-corruption front and call on the government to refrain from any actions that undermine that progress.
“There continues to be significant bipartisan support for Ukraine and agreement that it is in Ukraine’s interest – and our own – to meet the expectations of its citizens and ensure that governance structures safeguard Ukraine’s economic prosperity and future U.S. investment,” they add.
The Verkhovna Rada on 22 July backed Bill No. 12414, which reportedly limits the independence of the NABU and SAP. “In favour” voted 263 people’s deputies. After that, the head of the NABU, Semyon Kryvonos, called on the Ukrainian president to veto the bill because it “effectively destroys” the independence of the two institutions .
Dissatisfaction with the parliament’s decision led to protests by hundreds of people in Kiev, Lviv, Dnipro and Odessa.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed Law No. 12414 and said that the NABU and the SAP would continue to work, but that they should be “cleansed of Russian influences”.
Prosecutor-General Ruslan Kravchenko, commenting on suspicions about the loss of independence of the NABU and SAP, said that they report to him-“and we will be one family. They will work on their criminal proceedings, we will work on ours”.
This came after 70 searches conducted on 21 July by the SBU, the State Bureau of Investigation and the office of the Prosecutor-General against employees of the bureau. The SBU, among other things, reported the detention of a NABU employee who the agency claimed was spying for the Russian secret service. He was handed a suspicion. The NABU, however, said that it received information from the SBU leadership about possible risks related to one of its employees back in August 2023, but later the SBU said that there was no evidence regarding this employee.