Recently, in Ukraine, there was a serious escalation of the situation between the two main anti-corruption structures of the country - the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP). The information about the investigative actions of the SAP in NABU caused a wide resonance in society and the mass media.
Initially, the media reported that the SAP was conducting investigative actions at NABU regarding the leakage of information from the Bureau in the corruption case about "big construction". As reported, these actions took place with NABU detective Valery Polyuga and ex-head of Brovarsk RDA Birkadze. And the leak of information was in favor of one of the participants in the "big construction" case, Yuri Golyk, who was considered a person close to the ex-deputy head of the President's Office, Kyril Tymoshenko.
Yesterday NABU issued a sharp statement on this matter. On the one hand, by confirming that an investigation into the leak is underway, but, on the other hand, by stating that NABU is conducting it. And then there was an attack on the SAP: "We inform our colleagues at the SAP: NABU had and still has enough resources to carry out the investigation. NABU always guarantees an independent investigation and expects the same approach from our main partners."
At the same time, anti-corruption activists associated with Western embassies (in particular, Shabunin and Nikolov) sided with SAP in the conflict, hinting at future problems for NABU leaders. For example, at the deputy head of NABU Gizo Uglavy. Sources close to the leadership of NABU stated that there were no searches in Uglavy, and that all that is happening is the "throwing out" of the head of the SAP Klymenko, who acts in connection with Shabunin.
What's going on?
It all started back in 2022, when Artem Sytnyk, who enjoyed the support of Western structures and activists associated with them, left the post of head of NABU. Semyon Krivonos became the new head of NABU. Moreover, the activists immediately treated his candidacy with suspicion, which indicated that he was not from their "party". In contrast to the head of the SAP Klymenko, who enjoyed their full support.
Further, in NABU, an important change took place in 2023 - the head of the detective department, the right-hand man of Sytnyk, and Kaluzhynskyi were dismissed. According to unofficial data, it was due to leaking information in criminal cases to the oligarch Ihor Kolomoiskyi.
Activists took it in stride.
And already this year, they criticized Krivonos and Gizo Uglava for the reform of the management of detectives in NABU, accusing them of trying to take control of the investigation.
That is, apparently, NABU decided to conduct a "purge" of Sytnyk people, which caused such a sharp reaction from the support group of the former head of the Bureau.
And now the conflict has entered an open phase. The probable goal is to "overthrow" the leadership of NABU and restore the influence of activists on this structure.
They are supported by Western embassies.
However, the President's Office does not need the success of Shabunin and Co.
According to sources close to Bankova, the relationship between Zelenskyi and Western structures has been quite strained recently. This, in particular, was manifested during the visit to Kyiv of the US Secretary of State Blinken, who, according to sources, made a number of demands on Zelensky (including personnel ones), which the president refused to fulfill and, in turn, made claims to the US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink that maintains close ties with activists like Shabunin.
"Zelensky's position is as follows: I communicate directly with the leaders of Western countries, they do not demand anything like that. Therefore, if any demands are made by Western ambassadors and other clerks, and we consider these demands unacceptable, we will ignore them," the source said.
And if NABU and SAP act as a single unit under the control of Western structures and under the influence of activists, then there is a possibility that, in revenge for "disobedience", anti-corruption structures will start an investigation against Zelenskyi's entourage. Moreover, according to one version, this is the main goal of the current movements against the heads of NABU.
Therefore, Bankova is completely satisfied with the conflict between NABU and SAP, which reduces for her the threat of a coordinated strike from their side.
By the way, a similar situation already existed under Poroshenko, when a conflict began between the leadership of NABU and the head of SAP Kholodnytskyi. That partially paralyzed the work of the anti-corruption vertical.
