Recently, Ukraine has experienced a serious escalation of the situation between the country's two main anti-corruption structures - the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP). Information about the SAP's investigative actions in NABU has caused a wide resonance in society and the media.
Initially, the media reported that the SAPO was conducting investigative actions in the NABU regarding the leak of information from the Bureau in the corruption case about the "large construction". As reported, these actions were carried out by the NABU detective Valeriy Polyuga and the former head of the Brovary RDA Birkadze. And the leak of information was in favor of one of the defendants in the case about the "large construction", Yuriy Golyk, who was considered a person close to the former deputy head of the President's Office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko.
Yesterday, NABU made a sharp statement on this issue. On the one hand, confirming that an investigation into the leak is underway, but, on the other hand, stating that it is NABU that is conducting it. And then there was a crackdown on the SAPO: "We inform our colleagues at the SAPO: NABU had and has sufficient resources to conduct 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 the SAPO in the conflict, hinting at future problems for NABU leaders. For example, for NABU Deputy Head Gizo Uglava. And sources close to the NABU leadership stated that there were no searches at Uglava's house, and that all that is happening is the "infiltration" of SAPO head Klymenko, who is acting in conjunction with Shabunin.
What is happening?
It all started back in 2022, when Artem Sytnyk, who enjoyed the support of Western structures and activists associated with them, resigned from his post as head of NABU. Semen Kryvonos became the new head of NABU. Moreover, activists immediately treated his candidacy with suspicion, which indicated that he was not from their "party". Unlike the head of the SAPO Klymenko, who enjoyed their full support.
Then, an important change occurred in NABU in 2023 - the head of the detective department, Sytnyk and Kaluzhynsky's right-hand man, was fired. According to unofficial data, this was due to leaking information in criminal cases to oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky.
Activists took this as a setback.
And already this year, they criticized Kryvonos and Gizo Uglava for reforming the management of detectives at NABU, accusing them of seeking to take control of the investigation.
That is, apparently, the NABU decided to conduct a "cleansing" of Sytnyk's 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 likely goal is to "bring down" the NABU leadership and restore the activists' influence over this structure.
They enjoy support from Western embassies.
However, the President's Office does not need the successes of Shabunin and Co.
According to sources close to Bankova, relations between Zelensky and Western structures have been quite tense recently. This was particularly evident during the visit to Kyiv by US Secretary of State Blinken, who, according to sources, made a number of demands to Zelensky (including personnel demands), which the president refused to fulfill and, in turn, made claims to US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink, who maintains close ties with activists like Shabunin.
“Zelensky’s position is this: I communicate directly with the leaders of Western countries, they do not demand anything like that. Therefore, if Western ambassadors and other clerks make any demands, and we consider these demands unacceptable, we will ignore them,” the source said.
And if NABU and SAPO act as a single entity under the control of Western structures and under the influence of activists, then there is a possibility that, in revenge for the "disobedience", anti-corruption structures will launch an investigation against Zelensky's entourage. Moreover, according to one version, this is precisely the main goal of the current movements against the leaders of NABU.
Therefore, Bankova is quite satisfied with the conflict between NABU and SAPO, which reduces the threat of a coordinated attack on their part.
By the way, a similar situation already existed under Poroshenko, when a conflict broke out between the leadership of the NABU and the head of the SAPO Kholodnytskyi, which partially paralyzed the work of the anti-corruption vertical.
