Anti-corruption system in Ukraine producing results – EU ambassador

That’s according to the EU Ambassador to Ukraine, Katarína Mathernová, who spoke in an exclusive comment to Ukrinform ahead of the publication of the EU Enlargement Report 2024 where on the areas subject to assessment is the fight against corruption.

“Those who deal with Ukraine in detail, watch the ongoing processes, and understand what it takes to deal with corruption see that the system is now working,” stressed the ambassador when asked whether the EU perceives the latest spree of exposures of corrupt officials as an effective performance of watchdogs or an overwhelming scale of corruption in Ukraine.

“The system is producing results,” she noted. 

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On the other hand, she admitted, some officials in certain EU member states that may not be experts in the tic might get the impression that there is “just a lot of corruption” in Ukraine.

Therefore, it takes a certain level of understanding of anti-graft processes to see that this is how the system works: “high-profile cases are going to emerge”.

The ambassador also noted that the current situation can also be assessed that previously, “there was not an enabling environment to really go after all the different corruption schemes”. 

“For example, clearly, the issue with prosecutors has been going on for a while and it only came up now,” Mathernová noted.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, Prosecutor General Andr Kostin on October 22 announced resignation in the wake of reports that exposed a number of prosecutors who falsely registered as disabled persons, thus paving way to certain privileges. 

Meanwhile, the recent pl showed that Ukrainians consider reforms in the areas of anti-corruption, national security, and the judicial system to be the most important for the country. Also, the respondents see support from the Eurean Union in combating corruption as the most pressing need.