ATTACKING THE WATCHDOGS

Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Activists and Institutions Face New Wave of Assaults

Introduction

Human Rights Defenders (HRDs), journalists, and others in Ukraine working to counter corruption say they are facing an increased wave of targeting by the authorities and are calling on western allies to help protect Ukraine’s democracy, not only from Russian attack but also from internal pressures. Some are even openly accusing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office of deliberately undermining anti-corruption institutions after some of those in his close political circle came under investigation.

This targeting of anti-corruption activists has included physical threats, raids on their homes, SLAPP suits, and criminal charges. As Russia’s war on Ukraine enters its twelfth year — and the fourth since the full-scale invasion of February 2022 — anti-corruption activists are being attacked for exposing and opposing corruption by both local and national officials.

This is not a new phenomenon, but another assault on anti-corruption activists and institutions has begun. Human Rights First has worked closely with anti-corruption activists in Ukraine for many years. In 2017, we produced Democracy in Danger, a report detailing attacks on HRDs working on corruption issues. It included the cases of journalist Vasyl Muravytsky, and anti-corruption activist Dmytro Bulakh, who we visited in Kharkiv after he had been physically attacked. We presented the report in Kyiv at an event with prominent anti-corruption activist Vitaliy Shabunin. Both Bulakh and Shabunin are among those recently targeted again by the authorities.

Shabunin told Human Rights First in October 2025 that this targeting is “not an attack on just anticorruption activists from NGOs, but a broader strategy to undermine the whole anticorruption infrastructure created after the revolution of dignity.”

In 2014, widespread protests against the corruption of President Viktor Yanukovych’s government turned into a revolution that resulted in his fleeing the country. Fresh elections and a wave of reforms followed this “Revolution of Dignity.”  New institutions were created, including the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), designed to investigate and prosecute high-level corruption without political interference.

Human Rights First has closely monitored the work of these anti-corruption mechanisms, and since 2014 has visited Ukraine dozens of times to work with local activists, mostly in Kyiv and Kharkiv. In 2023 we visited Kharkiv and, together with the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Centre (KhAC), researched and issued a report on the irregularities in wartime reconstruction contracts.

While international attention to institutional reform and the weakening of the NABU and SAPO is welcome, it is equally critical that international actors prioritize protections and support for local anti-corruption activists. In 2017, Human Rights First briefed the U.S. Helsinki Commission on attacks targeting HRDs in Ukraine working on anti-corruption. Since then, conditions for these activists have only deteriorated.

In September and October 2025, Human Rights First visited Kyiv and Kharkiv to meet with HRDs working on anti-corruption issues. They reported that corruption has undermined both the war effort and the democratic advances made over the last decade. For example, the failure of defenses in Vovchansk during the Russian offensive in May 2024 were widely blamed on corruption in military supply and command structures. Prior to that, in 2023, a widespread scandal in military recruitment led President Zelenskyy to dismiss all regional recruitment office heads. HRDs told Human Rights First that those who expose these abuses face retaliation, including direct targeting and judicial harassment.