Christian Caryl

Today, Ukraine’s independent anti-corruption agencies, NABU and SAPO, released investigative materials that have shocked the country. But beyond the horrifying details, they reveal four important truths about Ukraine’s fight against corruption. When Ukrainians created NABU and SAPO, we imagined they would investigate high-level white-collar corruption involving ministers, oligarchs, and senior officials. Few of us imagined they would uncover allegations of such brutal organized crime. The recordings released as part of Operation Carthage-2 include discussions of attacking investigative journalists and activists with acid, assaulting a Mariupol defender and former prisoner of war with hammers, and accounts of people being brutally beaten, including a woman attacked with a metal pipe on the street at night. These materials expose something much larger than a criminal investigation. First, independent institutions inevitably begin exposing corruption within the old institutions. NABU and SAPO were created to investigate top-level corruption. Yet some of that corruption involve law enforcement officials protecting organized criminal networks rather than dismantling them. Second, organized crime systematically seeks protection across the entire unreformed law enforcement system. Earlier investigative materials pointed to alleged prosecutorial protection of fraudulent call centers. The latest materials raise questions about connections involving the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This is expected. The alleged criminal activities protected by corrupt law enforcement officials extend beyond fraud to drug trafficking, counterfeit currency, and violent attacks. Third, fighting corruption is part of Ukraine’s struggle to break with its Soviet and Russian past. The Soviet legacy left behind criminal networks operating across borders, often intertwined with security and law enforcement structures. The alleged involvement of a Russian criminal figure alongside Ukrainian officials illustrates why dismantling these networks is also a matter of national security. There is also a mention of how Russian FSB was used by criminals to attack a NABU detective. I repeatedly explain this during international meetings: Ukraine’s anti-corruption reforms are not merely about good governance. They are part of our strategic separation from Russia and the Soviet system. Fourth, the political dimension demands further investigation. The recordings contain references to political contacts, including a former interior minister, as well as a former health minister and possible meetings with MP David Arakhamia. Such references do not establish wrongdoing by those politicians. But they raise legitimate questions about the political connections that criminal networks believed they could rely upon. Those connections must be investigated further. Ultimately, the question is how deeply has organized crime penetrated Ukraine’s law enforcement and political institutions? This is precisely why the independence of NABU and SAPO matters. Ukraine must have institutions capable of investigating powerful networks, regardless of their connections. As a member of NABU’s Public Oversight Council, I am proud of the work these institutions are doing and grateful for their courage. And I am happy that Ukrainians successfully defended independence of NABU and SAPO by peaceful protests in the streets during a full-scale war. The work of NABU and SAPO is about our democratic resilience and defending our sovereignty.