A second front in Ukraine鈥檚 war: The battle against corruption
| Novofedorivka, Ukraine
For the past three decades, Ukraine has achieved a dismal distinction. Its levels of corruption have reached , except Russia.
But a year of war and hardship has wrought changes that many ordinary citizens believe will bring in their wake a new determination to combat the scourge.
鈥淭he war has drastically changed 鈥� the self-perception of Ukrainians, and this is not free of charge 鈥撀爌eople have paid with their lives,鈥� says Andrii Vyshnevskyi, the deputy head of Ukraine鈥檚 National Agency for Prevention of Corruption (NACP), in Kyiv.
Why We Wrote This
A story focused onUkraine鈥檚 corruption record is lamentable. But many Ukrainians say the courage and hope they have shown in the face of Russia has inspired them to combat official dishonesty too.
鈥淲hen those fighting in the trenches come back after victory, they will legitimately ask: 鈥榃hat have public servants and politicians done to change things?鈥欌�� he adds. Ukraine must also reassure the United States and other Western donors that it can reliably handle the billions of dollars鈥� worth of emergency military and humanitarian aid that is flooding into the country.
Ukrainians have become more intolerant of corruption, prompting 鈥渄emands from society鈥� to tackle it, says Mr. Vyshnevskyi.
Polls show that the number of citizens who believe that corruption is unacceptable under any circumstances rose from 40% before the war began to 64% today. This shift in thinking coincides with the highest 鈥減eak of trust鈥� in government for 30 years, says Mr. Vyshnevskyi. Indeed, many Ukrainians glimpse the outlines of a new social pact between the governed and the governing unprecedented in modern Ukrainian history.
In June last year, the legislature passed a 鈥淣ational Anti-Corruption Strategy鈥� that anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International called 鈥渁 positive signal and clear roadmap鈥� toward 鈥渢ackling powerful private interests and uprooting entrenched corruption.鈥�
And the first signs that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meant what he had said about tackling corruption came late last January. In Ukraine鈥檚 biggest political shake-up since the war began, more than a dozen senior officials 鈥� including five regional governors, four deputy ministers, and the deputy head of the president鈥檚 own office 鈥� were dismissed or stepped down amid corruption allegations.
The detention of a deputy minister of infrastructure for embezzlement was meant to be a 鈥渟ignal to all those whose actions or behavior violate the principle of justice,鈥� Mr. Zelenskyy said, vowing 鈥渘o return to what used to happen in the past.鈥�
The deputy minister of infrastructure, Vasyl Lozynsky, had belonged to an 鈥渙rganized criminal group,鈥� according to a statement by anti-corruption officials. They said he had taken a $400,000 bribe to help secure equipment purchasing contracts at inflated prices. Also out of a job was the deputy minister of defense, Vyacheslav Shapovalov, on whose watch the ministry signed contracts to supply troops with food at several times the price it would have cost in a supermarket.
Fighting Russia, fighting corruption
The crackdown proved widely popular, in keeping with popular sentiment that the war, for all its horror, also offers an opportunity to shine a light on the darker aspects of Ukrainian life, and root them out.
鈥淧eople鈥檚 expectations are very high,鈥� says Oleksandr Yakovenko, managing partner of EnlivUA, a trading and industrial conglomerate headquartered in Kyiv, that also sponsors a cultural arm to promote Ukrainian national identity. 鈥淥ur society does not tolerate corruption, as it did before.鈥�
The task of eradicating corruption is huge, he acknowledges. It could take decades. But with society in ferment since the Russian invasion, Mr. Yakovenko argues, 鈥渆verything is changing in our country; we have the possibility to do it more quickly.鈥�
鈥淲e need to reload the system with all new people,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a window of opportunity and we have to take it.鈥�
The possibility of such change became apparent soon after the Russian invasion, when President Zelenskyy vowed to stay and fight, when the capital Kyiv did not fall, and when citizen volunteers in the port city of Odesa 鈥� fearing a Russian assault 鈥� filled 800,000 sandbags with Black Sea beach sand.
Watching them work, Albert Kabakov, the president of the Odesa Yacht Club, predicted at the time that 鈥渁fter the victory, our society will be completely different. Our attitude to people who take bribes will change.鈥�
Today, Mr. Kabakov says the high-level firings in January were 鈥渁 good sign, but not enough. We have experience of high-profile cases making a splash and then disappearing.
鈥淚t is ridiculous that if you are stealing humanitarian aid, for punishment you just get fired,鈥� he fumes. 鈥淵ou should face a real court and real imprisonment.鈥�
鈥淩eady for a civilizational leap鈥�
But the difficulties go much deeper than malfeasance among top officials, says Mr. Vyshnevskyi of the NACP. 鈥淭he problem is that citizens still tolerate grassroots corruption.鈥� People offer gifts to their physicians, or give money to teachers to repair schools or to buy equipment, and don鈥檛 consider it corrupt.
鈥淚t鈥檚 difficult to convince people that corruption starts there, in their communities,鈥� he says.
That problem is deeply ingrained, agrees Oleksii Sydorchuk, who on the first day of the war founded a local nonprofit to channel humanitarian donations.
鈥淔or me, the biggest problem is not whether the U.S. or Europeans give enough weapons, but that state institutions are not working in the right way,鈥� he says. 鈥淔or a long time, people did not question authority and what was happening. We need to learn how to do that.鈥�
鈥淭here are two ways to live, by law, or by arrangements,鈥� Mr. Sydorchuk adds, pointing to cases in which local officials reported inflated numbers of displaced people in their districts, so as to skim off excess aid sent to help them.
鈥淭he tragedy of Ukraine is that most people in society are loyal to corruption,鈥� he says. So concerned citizens like him 鈥渁re interested in shifting mindsets. To love your country is not just 鈥榣ikes鈥� on social media.鈥�
Those shifting mindsets are evident to farmer Serhii Khoroschak, whose village, Novofedorivka, sits among endless rolling fields in southern Ukraine.
When he mustered 280 men as a local defense force in the first days of the Russian invasion, little did the area鈥檚 largest landowner think that such examples of resistance and courage 鈥� replicated across Ukraine 鈥� might serve as building blocks for better, and less corrupt, governance in the future.
For three months, facing the imminent threat of a Russian onslaught, the militia and Mr. Khoroschak聽鈥� a stocky man shaved bald, who uses crutches because he is missing his left leg 鈥� stood their ground. They ran half a dozen checkpoints and protected houses and gas and electricity installations.
Their village and the nearby coastal resort of Koblevo became regional hubs for the distribution of humanitarian aid. Mr. Khoroschak聽provided grain to nearby villages for six months. His men even hid an American-supplied HIMARS rocket system in a nearby grain storage facility.
Their experience of grassroots organization, and of taking responsibility for their community in the face of danger, has created new expectations of the authorities, Mr. Khoroschak says. 鈥淭he people in power have to be people who went to the front line and saw the suffering, so that before they take money ... as a bribe, they will think 200,000 times.鈥�
鈥淥ur nation is ready for a civilizational leap,鈥� he says. 鈥淧eople are ready to accept the changes, 100%. They feel that corruption has no future in Ukraine.鈥�
Oleksandr Naselenko supported reporting for this story.
