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submitted 1 week ago by qrstuv@lemmy.sdf.org to c/news@lemmy.sdf.org

http://archive.today/2025.07.22-131649/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/world/europe/zelensky-ukraine-corruption.html

One of Ukraine’s most prominent anti-corruption advocates and a frequent critic of the Zelensky administration, Vitalii Shabunin, was accused in a court proceeding last week of evading military service and fraud. He has denied the accusation, which his many domestic and international defenders say lacks merit. If convicted, he could face a decade in prison.

Mr. Shabunin is accused of avoiding military duty while receiving $1,200 a month in army pay and illegally using a military vehicle. However, Mr. Shabunin volunteered for service on the first day of the Russian invasion in 2022 and was then seconded to work at the anti-corruption bureau.

The authorities do not dispute that his assignment was legitimate, but they say he did not perform his duties at the agency. Investigators said in a statement that the prosecution “is in no way related to his professional activities.”

Mr. Shabunin said that at the legal proceeding, the court refused to hear evidence from his boss at the time that showed the prosecutors’ claim to be false. The next step in his prosecution comes next month, when his case will go before a judge again.

On Monday, even as the country came under yet another large-scale bombardment in its grueling war with Russia, Ukrainian security agencies directed dozens of raids on Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Special Anticorruption Prosecutor, saying that Russian intelligence had infiltrated the organizations.

In the raids on the two agencies, the Ukrainian authorities detained one employee working with the anti-corruption bureau, saying he was working against state interests. The bureau said in a statement that it had worked closely with Ukrainian security services about concerns related to the employee for years but had never been provided with any evidence against him.

Meanwhile, the bureau has been investigating possible abuses by people in the Zelensky administration, including Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, who was charged with corruption on June 23.

And on Tuesday, the Ukrainian Parliament, which Mr. Zelensky’s party controls, passed a law that — if signed by the president — would give Ukraine’s prosecutor general, who was appointed by Mr. Zelensky, new powers over investigations by the two agencies.

The two agencies were created more than a decade ago specifically to provide an independent check on government abuse, bypassing traditional law enforcement, which was seen as riddled with corruption. They were formed with the assistance of the F.B.I., supported by the European Union and nurtured by successive American administrations.

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