Almost every day in the Ukrainian media space, new reports about corruption scandals and financial frauds, in which people’s elected officials and officials are involved, appear. Even now, in times of war, those with power and opportunity do not hesitate to rob their people. Country estates, accounts in European banks, luxury cars and watches that are worth as much as an apartment somewhere in Khmelnytskyi – and this is all for the relatively modest money brought by the civil service. It would seem that now, when the whole country is collecting drones and cars for the front, when children wash cars and donate to the Armed Forces, and elderly people give up basic products in order to contribute to the future victory, officials could, if not bathe in luxury , then at least hide it. However, they don’t seem to care.
It is impossible to discuss and analyze all such cases, because there are so many of them that you cannot read them all. Today we have chosen three for you to demonstrate what is happening at different levels of government.
Case 1. Trade in Ukraine.
The mayor of Tulchyn, in Vinnytsia region, using his official position, became richer by 3 million hryvnias. According to the SBU, the official transferred hundreds of hectares of land for lease under a “simplified scheme” and at a rate that was significantly lower than the market rate. The simplification of the lease transfer was a violation of Ukrainian legislation, namely, the absence of a land auction and the absence of relevant meetings of the city council. The examination, which was initiated and conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine, revealed losses to the local budget in the amount of close to 3 million hryvnias. The mayor has already been informed of the suspicion under the article “Abuse of power and official position”. He faces up to 6 years in prison.
Case 2. Bureau of Economic Danger.
The Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine is a relatively new law enforcement agency created to investigate financial crimes. The BEB was supposed to be an effective replacement for the outdated and corrupt tax police. What in reality? In fact, detective Andriy Yakovlev bought a residential building near the capital, the value of which reaches 4.5 million hryvnias, and a plot of land worth about half a million hryvnias. It is reported that the detective received 2 million hryvnias as a loan under the Yeosel program, 680,000 hryvnias from his relative Maryna Yakovlev, and another quarter of a million was donated by his father, Mykola Yakovlev.
Another BEBU detective, Oleksandra Shcheglova, bought a 2023 Toyota Rav4 car worth 1.5 million hryvnias with donated and borrowed funds. It is reported that on the occasion of the holiday, Shcheglova received 580 thousand hryvnias as a gift, borrowed 330 hryvnias from one of the guests, and received about 600 thousand hryvnias on credit.
Another detective who received funds as a gift is Oleksandr Tomilov. On the occasion of his own wedding, the official became richer by 800,000 hryvnias, 658 of which were donated by his parents, Pavlo and Svitlana Nemchynova. Another 188 thousand hryvnias were presented to the detective by the Antyuk family. It should be noted that Pavlo Nemchynov works as the Deputy Head of the Main Investigative Department of the General Prosecutor’s Office.
According to a similar scenario, senior detective Vadym Kaplychny was enriched in a similar scenario – a wedding gift of 450 thousand hryvnias and the right to free use of an apartment in Kyiv and a Mercedes-Benz ML 350 car from his father.
Case 3. And me again.
There are people in Ukrainian politics whom few people take seriously, one of them is former member of “Servant of the People” Mykola Tyshchenko. We are already used to his ambiguous and funny statements, but recently he reminded himself again, this time – with a corruption scandal. Journalist Vitaly Glagola reported that the brother of Tyshchenko’s assistant won the tender for the purchase of cameras for the National Police for the amount of 6.778 million hryvnias, which is 2.5 million higher than the market price. It is characteristic that Bohdan Zagynai, the name of the person involved, was the only participant in the tender. After this story was given publicity, the tender was canceled with the wording “reduction of expenses for procurement of goods, works and services”.
These endless stories are a vivid example of how corrupt the Ukrainian government is at all levels and how impunity all this is for them. At a time when every hryvnia can bring benefit, when our country stands with its hand extended to the West, it is being robbed and divided by those who are supposed to protect it. The given examples are a drop in the ocean of Ukrainian corruption, which, like an octopus, has spread its tentacles wherever it could reach. This disease can only be treated by strict laws and their implementation, constant monitoring and public pressure. The people must remember that the government is people who must protect and defend their interests, not line their pockets. This especially applies to such bodies as BEB – “You should have fought evil, not joined it.”
Despite all the promises of the authorities and plans to fight corruption, the picture looks very unsatisfying, because our state is actually dependent on foreign capital. During the allocation of financial aid, partner countries put forward to Ukraine a number of conditions and obligations for the development of these funds. One of the main and most important conditions is the fight against corruption, which we are failing so far. In the Ukrainian media space, there are constant discussions about withholding and reducing the amount of aid from our partners, however, it is not always mentioned that the terms and amount of investments also depend on Ukraine. For example, the government of a friendly country allocates funds to certain areas in Ukraine, the first tranche is made, and at the same time a new corruption scandal erupts. Will this country continue to help us? Will it allocate funds from its own budget so that they can be “dusted” here by conditional Tyshchenka and Vesnyani? Of course not. Ukraine needs tough and urgent steps to suppress corruption, because it, together with the Russian Federation, is the main danger to national security. A separate topic for discussion is corruption schemes in the security sector, and, unfortunately, there are so many of them that it is impossible to include them all in one article, which is why we are announcing a whole series of articles that will cover this issue.
Pavlo Groholskyi.
