Afrasianet - On July 22, 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ratified  a controversial law that abolished the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Special Corruption Prosecutor's Office, placing the institutions under the authority of the Prosecutor General's Office, effectively subordinating them to the Office of the President, and is expected to lose the ability to independently investigate state corruption cases.

The law was passed quickly thanks to the support of Zelensky's "Servant of the People" party, and signed by the president despite domestic and international warnings, according to the Atlantic Council, the decision was interpreted as a direct response to investigations of prominent figures close to the presidency, including former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernysev.

The biggest protests since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022 erupted, with protesters arguing that the law undermines the effectiveness of anti-corruption agencies and weakens the security and intelligence apparatus.

The European Union (EU) has announced  the suspension of a €1.5 billion ($1.74 billion) aid tranche ($1.74 billion), justifying its move by the absence of fundamental reforms and escalating political interference, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Project.

After street pressure and international criticism, Zelensky announced two days later a new bill restoring independence to the two bodies, which was passed by a large majority on July 31, in a move seen as more of an attempt to contain the crisis than a serious political review.

The roots of corruption in Ukraine

Corruption in Ukraine  has its roots in the post-Soviet  period  in 1991, when it permeated state institutions, parties, the police, and the economy.

The American human rights organization KKK points out that bribery and political, judicial and bureaucratic corruption are among its most prominent manifestations.

The Guardian newspaper reported that since the 1990s, officials and businessmen have orchestrated extensive schemes to loot the state budget.

Officials from the Attorney General's Office revealed that nearly a fifth  of GDP  was looted annually between 2010 and 2014. 

Although Ukraine's economy was the size of Poland at independence, it later declined, while a limited number of businessmen turned into big billionaires.

According to Transparency International's 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index , Ukraine ranked 35th out of 100 countries.

Corruption in wartime

After the so-called "Dignity Revolution" in 2014, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau was established. Zelensky made "victory over corruption" a slogan of his 2019 election campaign, and was able to pass reforms such as the law to lift the immunity of deputies, but he faced setbacks, most notably his dispute with the Constitutional Court over the office's powers.

With billions  of dollars in Western aid pouring in since 2022, a series of major scandals have emerged:

•    Food supply to the military (2022): Officials accused of embezzling more than $17 million by inflating the prices of basic items such as potatoes and cabbage.

•    Bribery of the Chief Justice (2023): Vsevolod Knyazev arrested for receiving a bribe of approximately $2.7 million.

•    Bribery of recruitment agencies (2023): 112 cases have been opened against officials involved in accepting bribes to smuggle citizens out of military service, and violations include the theft of money and even digital currencies.

•    Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Case (2023): Vasyl Lozinsky received a bribe of about $400,000 to facilitate contracts for the purchase of generators at exorbitant prices.

•    Energy Sector Case (2024): Deputy Minister of Energy arrested after being caught red-handed with a bribe of $500,000 to facilitate the transfer of equipment from besieged areas.

•    The Billionaires Case (2025): Igor Kolomoisky and Gennady Bogolyupov lose a lawsuit in a London court  over a fraud that cost Privat Bank about $1.9 billion, according to Bloomberg.

•    Drone scandal  (August 2025): A corruption scheme was uncovered in contracts for the purchase of drones and electronic warfare systems at exorbitant prices by about 30%, costing the state treasury millions of dollars.

 Suspicions against the president and his wife

In October 2021, the Pandora Papers revealed that Zelensky and his associates owned an offshore network of companies in the British Virgin Islands, Cyprus and Belize, which was used to buy luxury properties in London, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Project.

His wife, Olena Zelenska, bought an apartment in Yalta in 2013 for less than half its market value, as it came from a businessman whose bank was accused of corruption, Reuters reported.

Zelensky's wife was also reported to have bought a luxury Bugatti for $4.8 million, but these claims were later denied by a number of reliable media outlets, including CBS.

Corruption remains one of Ukraine's most complex challenges, even as it fights an open war against Russia. Embezzlement, bribery, and manipulation of international aid have undermined trust in the authorities and weakened the home front. 

'Organized corruption' in Ukraine threatens to freeze European aid

Ukraine's president finds himself in direct confrontation with his allies in Europe after Brussels threatened to freeze financial aid amounting to 50 billion euros, over what it described as "undermining the independence of anti-corruption institutions" in Kiev.

The European warning came after the ruling Servant of the People party voted in favor of bringing anti-corruption bodies under the prosecutor general's office, which it considered a clear violation of the terms of support.

The commission has already withheld 1.5 billion euros, out of the 4.5 billion that was supposed to be spent in the next tranche amid growing doubts about Zelensky's intentions to pass a law restoring the independence of the national office . 

Tensions escalated after Ukraine's security service stormed about 70 offices of the commission and arrested investigators, under the pretext of confrontation, in a move seen as a response to the investigation of the former deputy prime minister and a close associate of Zelensky in corruption cases.

Despite Zelensky's attempt to contain the crisis by introducing a bill that would restore the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Office, the path of this bill in parliament remains unclear, and the crucial question arises: does Zelensky choose to protect his allies and internal centers at the expense of €50 billion in European support?

Dr. Nizar Bush, a professor of political science at Moscow University, asserts that corruption in  Ukraine is not a product of the current President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's era, but goes back to much earlier, likening its spread to "forest fires."

The professor of political science said in special statements to "Eram News" that the manifestations of corruption were rooted in the circles of the previous authority, where public funds, including bank and public funds, were looted, in addition to suspicious privatizations of institutions and systematic looting.

He explained that things got worse after Zelensky took power, pointing out that corruption rates doubled after the outbreak of the Russian military operation, as a result of the influx of Western aid in unprecedented volumes from the United States, NATO and the European Union, which is granted under the cover of military and financial support.

Systematic Corruption

Bush points out that much of this money is distributed among generals and ministers, and even among individuals close to Zelensky himself, explaining that there are documented reports of high-ranking officials who looted billions of dollars and then fled abroad, toward European countries, for fear of prosecution.

He added that US officials, led by the US president, have repeatedly and publicly spoken about "organized corruption" within the corridors of government in Kiev, specifically in the file of military aid, most of which has been directed to those who do not deserve it, as he described it.

Regarding the European support package of 50 billion euros, Bush said the EU has become reluctant to provide such a large sum to Ukraine, noting that Europeans have become more aware of the extent of corruption within the authority, in light of the worsening state of chaos that is hitting state institutions and the military.

He stressed that officials in Ukraine are aware that the war is coming to an end, and that the balance of the battle is tilted in Russia's favor, so "many of them are quick to steal what can be stolen from Western support money before it is too late."

Bush noted that corruption has reached its peak within Ukraine's military establishment, to the point that soldiers have begun to flee the frontlines or surrender because they are not receiving salaries, at a time when billions of dollars are going into the pockets of senior leadership. 

On the other hand, credible reports indicate that Ukraine has turned into a market for surrogacy and a destination for war tourism. As for Ukraine, two opposite trades have come together: the "beginning of life" trade through surrogacy, and the "end of life" trade through so-called war tourism.  In two parallel stories: how did Ukraine become a leading destination for embryos for foreign families and the accompanying legal and social questions? And how did a new demand for field tours grow into war zones, where destruction is becoming a digitally consumed landscape?

Valery Picard, an entrepreneur and professor at Mohila Academy University, believes that "there is a disconnect between Zelensky and Ukrainian society, for Zelensky the absence of criticism and demonstrations means no criticism."

According to the expert on contemporary Ukraine's transformations, "Zelensky has lost part of his legitimacy in this case, because legitimacy is about elections and ethics in politics, whereas to govern a country in a time of war, you need complete legitimacy to establish yourself as a moral leader."

In the context, the war in Ukraine has caused  the revival of the black market, as several arms shipments destined for Kyiv have diverted to find their way to the black market for weapons in Europe, Africa and Asia.

The Ukraine crisis has contributed to the recovery of the informal arms market, or what is known as the black market, in light of the entry into this market of a large percentage of weapons that were supposed to reach support the Ukrainian forces, which according to published estimates range between (50 and 70 percent) of the weapons sent, which are Weapons may eventually reach other countries, organized crime groups, or extremist groups, especially given the experience of Ukraine's arms smuggling networks, the absence of means to enforce non-transfer agreements, and the inability of Western governments to verify that weapons have reached their final destination within Ukrainian territory. 

In this regard, American journalist Tucker Carlson stated that Ukraine has sold a large share of the weapons provided by the United States and NATO on the black market, despite Washington's commitment to monitor military aid.

In an interview with American journalist Chris Cuomo, Carlson said, "Ukraine has sold massive amounts of weapons systems that America and NATO have supplied to around the world. Now they are being bought by governments and armed groups."

He added that weapons sent by the West end up in the hands of Mexican drug traffickers, the Taliban, the Palestinian movement Hamas and others, creating an "incredibly destabilizing effect."

Carlson admitted that he personally knew the buyers of the weapons, but could not reveal their names. He described Ukraine as "the most corrupt country in Europe," as the level of corruption is so high that NATO does not want to include it in its membership.

"We have poured billions of dollars into high-tech weapons systems in this country, and we are not monitoring them. We also have biological laboratories there. We are morally obligated to monitor this."

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Ukraine sells weapons in the Middle East, where they are distributed anywhere. There have been repeated media reports that part of the weapons supplied to Ukraine end up on the black market, which has also been confirmed by European officials.

 Europol President Catherine de Paul also explicitly warned in May 2022 that the weapons supplied by EU countries to Ukraine would end up in the hands of criminal groups.

In July 2022, EU police announced that they had specific information about the "leakage" of ammunition and weapons, including heavy weapons, from the area of combat operations in Ukraine. The authorities assumed that secret weapons caches were equipped along the EU-Ukraine border to regulate smuggling.

At the end of October 2022, Finland's Central Criminal Police Commissioner Krister Ahlgin stated in an interview with Yle that weapons supplied to Ukraine may be in the hands of Finnish criminal gangs.

In April 2023, Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Seymour Hersh reported that even in the early stages of the conflict, Western-supplied weapons were flooding Poland, which former Polish Deputy Interior Minister Machi Fonsec admitted. 

Russia has previously indicated that the supply of weapons to Ukraine is hindering the peaceful settlement of the conflict, and that NATO countries are directly involved in the conflict.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has previously stressed that any shipments containing weapons to Ukraine are a legitimate target for Russia, and said that the United States and NATO are directly involved in the conflict, not only through the supply of weapons, but also through the training of personnel on the territory of Britain, Germany, Italy and other countries.