Volodymyr Zelensky said that the anti-corruption infrastructure will work, but without Russian influence. This statement was made after the president signed bill No. 12414, which amends and limits the work of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutorʼs Office (SAPO).
Zelensky says he spoke with the NABU head Semen Kryvonos, the SAPO Prosecutor Oleksandr Klymenko, the Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, and the SBU head Vasyl Malyuk about the challenges they face.
The President assures that NABU and SAPO will work, but, according to him, without Russian influence — everything needs to be cleansed of this.
"And it is important that the Prosecutor General is determined to ensure that in Ukraine the inevitability of punishment for those who go against the law is really ensured. And this is what is really needed for Ukraine. The cases that were pending must be investigated," Zelensky added.
According to him, for years, officials who fled Ukraine have been living peacefully abroad without any punishment, and it is unknown why the cases of billions of dollars have not progressed for years and why the Russians are still receiving the information they need. The President added: it is important that there is an inevitability of punishment and that society really sees this.
Law No. 12414 amends the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Among other things, the Prosecutor General will be granted the following powers:
- to take cases from NABU and entrust the investigation to other bodies;
- be the de facto head of SAPO and delegate the powers of the SAPO prosecutor to other prosecutors;
- provide NABU detectives with mandatory written instructions;
- independently close cases on suspicion of top officials.
Amendments are also envisaged that will limit the activities of SAPO, namely:
- the SAPO prosecutors will not be able to determine NABUʼs jurisdiction in certain cases;
- the head of SAPO will not be able to resolve disputes about the subjectivity of investigation in cases that NABU can investigate;
- The head of SAPO will not have the authority to amend appeals and cassation complaints filed by the SAPO prosecutors.
NABU and SAPO emphasized that if the document is adopted, the head of SAPO will become a nominal figure, and NABU will lose its independence and turn into a unit of the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office. In Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv, and Dnipro, people took to the streets to protest against the bill.
What preceded
On July 21, law enforcement officers conducted mass searches at NABU and SAPO. In particular, they detained one of the heads of the Bureauʼs interregional detective departments Ruslan Maghamedrasulov. According to the investigation, the official was in close contact with the fugitive MP from the banned “OPZZh” party Fedir Khrystenko (he was reported suspected of treason), who is connected to the Russian special services.
NABU reported almost 70 searches involving 15 of its employees. They stated that most of them were due to the employeesʼ involvement in a traffic accident (three employees were later reported as suspicious for this).
SBU also said that it had exposed a mole in NABU who was spying for FSB. At the same time, the Bureau says that back in 2023, the special service was informed about a possible mole, but at that time SBU did not reveal the involvement of the bureau employee in espionage.
NABU and SAPO also accused the Security Service of potentially revealing confidential information about the investigation during investigative actions. SBU called these statements manipulations.
And on July 22, SBU reported the discovery of new leaks of secret data in the NABU — during searches at Khrystenkoʼs house, confidential NABU documents were found.
After studying the materials of the Security Service of Ukraine and the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office, the court arrested two NABU employees — an employee of the NABU Central Office, who, according to the investigation, works in the closed unit "D-2", and one of the heads of the interregional departments of NABU detectives Ruslan Maghamedrasulov.
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