Politicians, activists and diplomats accuse Ukraine’s leader of favouring loyalists and using wartime powers against critics
Christopher Miller
July 18, 2025
Anti-corruption raids on prominent Ukrainian figures and moves to favour loyalists in senior positions have led to accusations that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government is sliding into authoritarianism.
Zelenskyy and his top aides face allegations from politicians, activists and diplomats that they are using extraordinary powers granted under martial law to sideline critics, muzzle civil society leaders and consolidate control.
The outcry has grown since masked, heavily armed officers from Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) forced their way into the home of prominent anti-corruption campaigner Vitaliy Shabunin in Kharkiv last Friday, seizing phones, laptops and tablets.
Around the same time, SBI investigators and armed agents raided the home of former infrastructure minister Oleksandr Kubrakov in Kyiv, taking his mobile and other devices. Authorities said the searches were connected to corruption investigations.
Shabunin and Kubrakov labelled the raids as politically motivated, adding that the SBI had presented no court-issued warrants and would not allow time for their lawyers to be present for the searches.
Shabunin told the Financial Times: “Zelenskyy is using my case to send a message to two groups that could pose a threat to him. The message is this: if I can go after Shabunin publicly — under the scrutiny of the media and despite public support — then I can go after any one of you.”
“The first group are journalists or activists exposing corruption,” he added. “The second group is military personnel. Because the charges against me relate to my military service.”
Political allies and even detractors of Shabunin and Kubrakov, along with much of Ukraine’s civil society, condemned the raids and warned they appear to be part of a campaign by Zelenskyy’s office against critics.
“This is a straight-up, Russian-style scenario of dividing society, which could lead to protests in the streets,” said MP Oleksandra Ustinova, chair of the Ukrainian parliament’s commission on arms control and an adviser to the defence minister.
The raids followed sanctions against several prominent politicians, including former president Petro Poroshenko, who lost a re-election campaign to Zelenskyy in 2019 and has been a staunch critic since.
Earlier this month, Zelenskyy’s cabinet opted not to appoint Oleksandr Tsyvinsky, a detective with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (Nabu), to lead the Economic Security Bureau, which investigates economic crimes.
Tsyvinsky had been independently selected, but the cabinet claimed he was “not suitable”.
Anastasia Radina, an MP from Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party and head of parliament’s anti-corruption committee, said the government had “no authority” to reject Tsyvinsky and the move did “not comply with the law”.
Also this month, the president nominated first deputy prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko to lead his cabinet, replacing long-serving premier Denys Shmyhal. Svyrydenko is considered a close ally of Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff. Svyrydenko was approved by parliament on Thursday, making her Ukraine’s new prime minister.
The shift comes at a precarious time for Ukraine, which is trying to fight off an escalating Russian air and ground offensive, shore up US military support and reboot its government.
Ukrainian activists, independent media and western officials in Kyiv have warned that what began as a defence of sovereignty risks sliding into a crusade to reshape the state in the ruling circle’s image. They say this threatens to undermine progress on reform since Ukraine’s 2014 democratic revolution.
Zelenskyy’s office declined to comment, but a person close to the president said the SBI’s cases were fact-based and dismissed any suggestions of political motivation.
The SBI said its case against Shabunin “is well-founded and supported” by a Tuesday decision by a district court in Kyiv, which ordered the campaigner not to leave his place of military service and to relinquish documents allowing him to travel abroad.
Shabunin and Kubrakov, whose cases are not directly connected, have both vehemently denied the charges against them.
The case of Shabunin, a co-founder and head of the board of the Kyiv-based Anti-Corruption Action Centre (AntAC), is focused on accusations of draft evasion and fraud. The SBI accused him of dodging the draft and misusing military funds, crimes punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Shabunin’s lawyer, Olena Shcherban, said the case was built on a distortion of his military record. She maintained the investigation was illegal and designed to smear an activist who had exposed corruption in the government.
After Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Shabunin volunteered for the Territorial Defence Forces. From September 2022 to February 2023 he was seconded to the National Agency for Corruption Prevention. AntAC said his deployment was formally approved and fully legal.
Shcherban maintains Shabunin’s pay matched government guidelines for mobilised troops and that he never received combat bonuses. She condemned the seizure of electronics belonging to his wife and children, calling the raid a coercive and extrajudicial act.
“These weren’t searches,” said Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of AntAC. “They were intimidation tactics. This wasn’t about justice. It was about pressure.”
Shabunin and his supporters believe the move is retribution for AntAC’s investigations into high-level corruption and its criticism of Zelenskyy’s cabinet after it rejected Tsyvinsky’s appointment at the ESB.
A longtime anti-corruption campaigner, Shabunin has been a thorn in the side of several administrations.
Some in Zelenskyy’s office have accused AntAC of being “grant eaters”, a term used to smear non-profit groups that accept funding from western governments.
The case against Shabunin ignited outrage across Ukraine’s pro-reform community. Leading independent media published scathing editorials.
“Taking advantage of the war, Zelenskyy is making his first, yet confident, steps towards corrupt authoritarianism,” wrote the editorial board of Ukrainian Truth, Ukraine’s most-read online news outlet.
“A crackdown on the country’s most famous anti-corruption crusader can’t be happening without at least the silent approval from President Zelenskyy, if not active permission,” the English-language Kyiv Independent said.
The president’s top political rivals followed suit. Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko warned that “under the guise of war, the authorities persecute those deemed inconvenient: political opponents, local governments, experts, journalists and activists”.
Kubrakov’s case centres on allegations that he helped a Ukrainian lawmaker embezzle about $350,000 in a scheme to purchase fertilisers in Belarus. He said he has “absolutely no connection” with the lawmaker and was fully co-operating with law enforcement.
A person close to Kubrakov said they believed the searches of his home amounted to “revenge” for a criminal corruption probe opened this month into a close Zelenskyy ally, deputy prime minister Oleksiy Chernyshov.
Investigators believe Kubrakov may have blown the whistle on Chernyshov, which the former has denied. Chernyshov has denied accusations of taking part in a $24mn land fraud.
Shabunin also cited the case as a reason for the authorities going after him. “Zelenskyy feels vulnerable. We blocked their top-priority draft law — an amnesty for corruption-related crimes committed by arms suppliers,” he said. “And Nabu issued a notice of suspicion to deputy prime minister Chernyshov, who belongs to Zelenskyy’s inner circle.”
At the same time, the government reshuffle, which began on Wednesday, has prompted critics to accuse the administration of concentrating power in the hands of a few.
"This is revenge,” Kaleniuk of AntAC said. “They’re using the mobilisation law and wartime secrecy to crush critics, assuming the west is too distracted to notice.”
The moves also come as relations between Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump appear back on track after a dispute in the Oval Office in February and a temporary halt to US military assistance and intelligence sharing.
Trump recently announced he would sell arms to Nato countries, which would pass them to Ukraine. But the US leader has abruptly changed his position on Ukraine and Russia before, and few in Kyiv believe he has pivoted to their side for good.
G7 ambassadors have previously publicly warned Zelenskyy’s administration over governance. But this time, the ambassadors in Kyiv have maintained a public silence, including about the raids on Shabunin and Kubrakov.
US ambassador Bridget Brink resigned in protest against Trump’s policies in April this year. An interim envoy has split time between Kyiv and her permanent post in Cyprus.
“It’s really difficult to be critical of Ukraine” when it was under relentless Russian attack, one ambassador said. Others noted the delicate balance of being critical while also showing support as the war-torn country relies on billions of dollars of western financial and military aid.
A western diplomat in Kyiv who has worked closely with Ukraine’s civil society said the cases of Shabunin and Kubrakov “aren’t isolated events”. “They fit a pattern: critics are being pushed aside, loyalists are shielded.”
“There’s a sense inside Bankova [Ukraine’s presidential office] that the west and especially the US has shifted its focus,” the diplomat said. “That rule of law and good governance no longer matter as much.”
Ukraine’s commitment to democratic reform has been central to securing western backing. But with US political attention turning inward and military aid becoming more transactional, some officials in Kyiv appear willing to test the limits.
Kaleniuk said: “If the institutions meant to enforce checks and balances are turned into political tools, Ukraine risks losing the democratic core it fought to build after 2014.”
sell arms to Nato countries
Christopher Miller
July 18, 2025
Anti-corruption raids on prominent Ukrainian figures and moves to favour loyalists in senior positions have led to accusations that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government is sliding into authoritarianism.
Zelenskyy and his top aides face allegations from politicians, activists and diplomats that they are using extraordinary powers granted under martial law to sideline critics, muzzle civil society leaders and consolidate control.
The outcry has grown since masked, heavily armed officers from Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) forced their way into the home of prominent anti-corruption campaigner Vitaliy Shabunin in Kharkiv last Friday, seizing phones, laptops and tablets.
Around the same time, SBI investigators and armed agents raided the home of former infrastructure minister Oleksandr Kubrakov in Kyiv, taking his mobile and other devices. Authorities said the searches were connected to corruption investigations.
Shabunin and Kubrakov labelled the raids as politically motivated, adding that the SBI had presented no court-issued warrants and would not allow time for their lawyers to be present for the searches.
Shabunin told the Financial Times: “Zelenskyy is using my case to send a message to two groups that could pose a threat to him. The message is this: if I can go after Shabunin publicly — under the scrutiny of the media and despite public support — then I can go after any one of you.”
“The first group are journalists or activists exposing corruption,” he added. “The second group is military personnel. Because the charges against me relate to my military service.”
Political allies and even detractors of Shabunin and Kubrakov, along with much of Ukraine’s civil society, condemned the raids and warned they appear to be part of a campaign by Zelenskyy’s office against critics.
“This is a straight-up, Russian-style scenario of dividing society, which could lead to protests in the streets,” said MP Oleksandra Ustinova, chair of the Ukrainian parliament’s commission on arms control and an adviser to the defence minister.
The raids followed sanctions against several prominent politicians, including former president Petro Poroshenko, who lost a re-election campaign to Zelenskyy in 2019 and has been a staunch critic since.
Earlier this month, Zelenskyy’s cabinet opted not to appoint Oleksandr Tsyvinsky, a detective with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (Nabu), to lead the Economic Security Bureau, which investigates economic crimes.
Tsyvinsky had been independently selected, but the cabinet claimed he was “not suitable”.
Anastasia Radina, an MP from Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party and head of parliament’s anti-corruption committee, said the government had “no authority” to reject Tsyvinsky and the move did “not comply with the law”.
Also this month, the president nominated first deputy prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko to lead his cabinet, replacing long-serving premier Denys Shmyhal. Svyrydenko is considered a close ally of Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff. Svyrydenko was approved by parliament on Thursday, making her Ukraine’s new prime minister.
The shift comes at a precarious time for Ukraine, which is trying to fight off an escalating Russian air and ground offensive, shore up US military support and reboot its government.
Ukrainian activists, independent media and western officials in Kyiv have warned that what began as a defence of sovereignty risks sliding into a crusade to reshape the state in the ruling circle’s image. They say this threatens to undermine progress on reform since Ukraine’s 2014 democratic revolution.
Zelenskyy’s office declined to comment, but a person close to the president said the SBI’s cases were fact-based and dismissed any suggestions of political motivation.
The SBI said its case against Shabunin “is well-founded and supported” by a Tuesday decision by a district court in Kyiv, which ordered the campaigner not to leave his place of military service and to relinquish documents allowing him to travel abroad.
Shabunin and Kubrakov, whose cases are not directly connected, have both vehemently denied the charges against them.
The case of Shabunin, a co-founder and head of the board of the Kyiv-based Anti-Corruption Action Centre (AntAC), is focused on accusations of draft evasion and fraud. The SBI accused him of dodging the draft and misusing military funds, crimes punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Shabunin’s lawyer, Olena Shcherban, said the case was built on a distortion of his military record. She maintained the investigation was illegal and designed to smear an activist who had exposed corruption in the government.
After Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Shabunin volunteered for the Territorial Defence Forces. From September 2022 to February 2023 he was seconded to the National Agency for Corruption Prevention. AntAC said his deployment was formally approved and fully legal.
Shcherban maintains Shabunin’s pay matched government guidelines for mobilised troops and that he never received combat bonuses. She condemned the seizure of electronics belonging to his wife and children, calling the raid a coercive and extrajudicial act.
“These weren’t searches,” said Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of AntAC. “They were intimidation tactics. This wasn’t about justice. It was about pressure.”
Shabunin and his supporters believe the move is retribution for AntAC’s investigations into high-level corruption and its criticism of Zelenskyy’s cabinet after it rejected Tsyvinsky’s appointment at the ESB.
A longtime anti-corruption campaigner, Shabunin has been a thorn in the side of several administrations.
Some in Zelenskyy’s office have accused AntAC of being “grant eaters”, a term used to smear non-profit groups that accept funding from western governments.
The case against Shabunin ignited outrage across Ukraine’s pro-reform community. Leading independent media published scathing editorials.
“Taking advantage of the war, Zelenskyy is making his first, yet confident, steps towards corrupt authoritarianism,” wrote the editorial board of Ukrainian Truth, Ukraine’s most-read online news outlet.
“A crackdown on the country’s most famous anti-corruption crusader can’t be happening without at least the silent approval from President Zelenskyy, if not active permission,” the English-language Kyiv Independent said.
The president’s top political rivals followed suit. Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko warned that “under the guise of war, the authorities persecute those deemed inconvenient: political opponents, local governments, experts, journalists and activists”.
Kubrakov’s case centres on allegations that he helped a Ukrainian lawmaker embezzle about $350,000 in a scheme to purchase fertilisers in Belarus. He said he has “absolutely no connection” with the lawmaker and was fully co-operating with law enforcement.
A person close to Kubrakov said they believed the searches of his home amounted to “revenge” for a criminal corruption probe opened this month into a close Zelenskyy ally, deputy prime minister Oleksiy Chernyshov.
Investigators believe Kubrakov may have blown the whistle on Chernyshov, which the former has denied. Chernyshov has denied accusations of taking part in a $24mn land fraud.
Shabunin also cited the case as a reason for the authorities going after him. “Zelenskyy feels vulnerable. We blocked their top-priority draft law — an amnesty for corruption-related crimes committed by arms suppliers,” he said. “And Nabu issued a notice of suspicion to deputy prime minister Chernyshov, who belongs to Zelenskyy’s inner circle.”
At the same time, the government reshuffle, which began on Wednesday, has prompted critics to accuse the administration of concentrating power in the hands of a few.
"This is revenge,” Kaleniuk of AntAC said. “They’re using the mobilisation law and wartime secrecy to crush critics, assuming the west is too distracted to notice.”
The moves also come as relations between Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump appear back on track after a dispute in the Oval Office in February and a temporary halt to US military assistance and intelligence sharing.
Trump recently announced he would sell arms to Nato countries, which would pass them to Ukraine. But the US leader has abruptly changed his position on Ukraine and Russia before, and few in Kyiv believe he has pivoted to their side for good.
G7 ambassadors have previously publicly warned Zelenskyy’s administration over governance. But this time, the ambassadors in Kyiv have maintained a public silence, including about the raids on Shabunin and Kubrakov.
US ambassador Bridget Brink resigned in protest against Trump’s policies in April this year. An interim envoy has split time between Kyiv and her permanent post in Cyprus.
“It’s really difficult to be critical of Ukraine” when it was under relentless Russian attack, one ambassador said. Others noted the delicate balance of being critical while also showing support as the war-torn country relies on billions of dollars of western financial and military aid.
A western diplomat in Kyiv who has worked closely with Ukraine’s civil society said the cases of Shabunin and Kubrakov “aren’t isolated events”. “They fit a pattern: critics are being pushed aside, loyalists are shielded.”
“There’s a sense inside Bankova [Ukraine’s presidential office] that the west and especially the US has shifted its focus,” the diplomat said. “That rule of law and good governance no longer matter as much.”
Ukraine’s commitment to democratic reform has been central to securing western backing. But with US political attention turning inward and military aid becoming more transactional, some officials in Kyiv appear willing to test the limits.
Kaleniuk said: “If the institutions meant to enforce checks and balances are turned into political tools, Ukraine risks losing the democratic core it fought to build after 2014.”
sell arms to Nato countries
