Corruption in Ukraine is a significant issue that affects society[1][2] going back to thedissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.[3] Afterdeclaring independence from theSoviet Union,Ukraine faced a series of politicians from different sides of the political spectrum, as well as criminal bosses andoligarchs, who used the corruption of police, political parties, and industry to gain power.[4] Ukraine is still considered one of the more corrupt countries in Europe, but has made steady progress at improvement since 2015.[5][6]
The modern period of Ukrainian corruption can be traced back to the integration of individuals linked toSoviet organised crime into thenomenklatura (Soviet, including theUkrainian, ruling elite) in the 1980s.[7]
Due to revenue from industry, tourism and ports, this was particularly an issue inDonetsk Oblast.[10] In 2005, mass graves of businesspersons, judges, lawyers, and investigators were discovered in Donetsk.[11]Donetsk's ex-GovernorViktor Yanukovych and hisParty of Regions were among many accused of having close ties to organised crime.[12] Yanukovych nonetheless was electedPresident of Ukraine in the2010 election. In 2014, however, he was overthrown in theMaidan Uprising, which broke out after he refused to sign a trade deal with the European Union. Many protestors cited corruption as the most significant reason for their discontent.[13][14] Yanukovych was considered morepro-Russian than his predecessors, leadingUkrainian nationalists to argue that corruption was tied to their country's relationship withRussia.[15][16][17][18][19][20][21] Corruption reforms saw some successes in Ukraine since theMaidan Revolution, with a reduction in waste due to police reform, public procurement and the dissolution of state-owned industries, though critics noted this progress to be limited.[22]
Ukraine has been under increased scrutiny on the issue of corruption amidst unprecedented financial aid provided to the country during the2022 Russian invasion. In January 2023, several senior officials, including five provincial governors, lost their jobs over a corruption scandal.Deputy Defense Minister Viacheslav Shapovalov, following a major procurement scandal in the ministry, and deputy head of theOffice of the President of Ukraine,Kyrylo Tymoshenko, also resigned. A few days earlier a deputy minister at theMinistry of Infrastructure was sacked after the anti-corruption agency detained him while he was receiving a $400,000 bribe, according to Ukrainian authorities.[23][24][25]
In a 1995 survey by theIlko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, 42% of respondents stated that corruption "is a shameful phenomenon that has no objective grounds" while 36% chose the option that corruption is "a component of social traditions."[27] Respondents fromSouthern andWestern Ukraine more often chose the option of corruption being "a component of social traditions" (42% and 43%). The option "a shameful phenomenon that has no objective grounds" was more often chosen by respondents inCentral Ukraine (48%) andEastern Ukraine (53%).[27]
In 2012Ernst & Young put Ukraine among the three most-corrupt nations from 43 surveyed, alongsideColombia andBrazil.[28][29] In 2015The Guardian called Ukraine "the most corrupt nation in Europe".[6] According to a poll conducted by Ernst & Young in 2017, experts considered Ukraine to be the ninth-most corrupt nation from 53 surveyed.[30]
Transparency International's 2024Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), which scored 180 countries on a scale from 0 ("highly corrupt") to 100 ("very clean"), gave Ukraine a score of 35. When ranked by score, Ukraine ranked 105th among the 180 countries in the Index, where the country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector.[31] For comparison with regional scores, the best score among Eastern European and Central Asian countries[Note 1] was 53, the average score was 35 and the worst score was 17.[32] For comparison with worldwide scores, the best score was 90 (ranked 1), the average score was 43, and the worst score was 8 (ranked 180).[33] Commenting on Ukraine's 2023 CPI score, Transparency International noted that Ukraine's score has been improving steadily for 11 years, rising three points from the 2022 score.
The focus on justice system reforms, including restructuring judicial self-governance bodies and increasing judicial independence, has been key. Efforts to strengthen the capacity and independence of its anti-corruption agency (NABU) and its anti-corruption prosecution body (SAPO) – coupled with a national anti-corruption strategy and its comprehensive implementation programme – have provided a solid foundation for ongoing anti-corruption efforts.
However, Transparency International continued, the worrisome number of high-level corruption cases being detected and prosecuted by these agencies shows that much work remains to be done.[26]
In the 2010s prominent Ukrainian economistOleh Havrylyshyn [uk] performed a comparison of the Ukrainian corruption in a wide global context based on data provided by Transparency International. This research estimated the level of corruption in Ukraine as comparable to countries ofSub-Saharan Africa withUganda as the closest counterpart.[34][35]
In the 2000s bribes were given to ensure that public services were delivered either in time or at all.[37] Ukrainians stated they give bribes because they thought it is customary and expected.[37][38] Some of the biggest bribes involved more than US$1 million.[39] According to a 2008 Management Systems International (MSI) sociological survey, the highest corruption levels were found in vehicle inspection (58%), the police (54%), health care (54%), the courts (49%) and higher education (44%).[40] In 2011,Ukrainian PresidentViktor Yanukovych stated that corruption cost the state budgetUS$2.5 billion in revenues annually and that through corrupt dealings in public procurement 10% to 15% (US$7.4 billion) of the state budget ended up "in the pockets of officials".[41]
In 2016, theIMF mission chief for Ukraine stated that the reduction of corruption was a key test for continued international support.[45] Some Western analysts believed that large foreign loans were not encouraging reform, but enabling the corrupt extraction of funds out of the country.[46] U.S. Assistant Secretary of StateVictoria Nuland urged Ukraine to start prosecuting corrupt officials: "It's time to start locking up people who have ripped off the Ukrainian population for too long and it is time to eradicate the cancer of corruption".[47]
In Transparency International'sGlobal Corruption Barometer 2013, Ukrainians reported that the most common institution to which they had paid bribes during the preceding two years was thepolice (49% of Ukrainians surveyed had done so),medical and health services (41%), and theeducation system (33%).[48] Through repeated surveys from 2000–2010, a majority of Ukrainians self-reported corrupt transactions with the Government.[37][49][50][51]
In 2008, 21% responded that they or someone living in their household had paid a bribe in any form in the previous 12 months.[52] In a 2001GfK survey, 43% stated they had never personally given bribes.[38]
In the years after Ukrainian independence, election fraud was widespread, mainly through the use of "administrative resources".[53] On the other hand, according toTaras Kuzio, election fraud in Ukraine could only reach five percent of the total vote.[54] Following the initial rounds of voting in the2004 presidential election, the Supreme Court of Ukraine ruled that due to the scale of the electoral fraud, it was impossible to establish the election results and ordered a revote.[55] Afterwards, outrightvote rigging diminished,[56] although politicians still claimed election fraud, and administrative tricks to get more votes for a particular party had not vanished.[57] The Ukrainian electorate remained highly sceptical about the honesty of the election process.[58] Any voter who engages in election fraud faces a maximum sentence of two years in jail,[citation needed] though activists say no one has been punished for voter fraud since Ukrainian independence.[59]
In the 2000s,United States diplomats claimed theprivatization of several Ukrainian state enterprises was rigged in favor of political friends.[9] On a regional level, corruption was discovered in connection with land allocation.[60]
Around 2010, Ukrainian politicians regularly accused each other of corruption while claiming to fight it themselves.[61] Aftergoing undercover in theReforms for the Futureparliamentary faction in early 2012,Roman Zabzaliuk claimed this faction "bought" its members for "US$500,000 (for a 'defection' from other parliamentary groups), and then they pay a monthly salary of $20,000-25,000"; in contrast, according to Reforms for the Future, Zabzalyuk had pretended he was "suffering a very serious disease" and the group had managed to raise some $100,000 for Zabzalyuk to undergo surgery inIsrael.[62]
Since 2011, thePresident,Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Prime Minister,Prosecutor General,ministers and other Ukrainian top officials have been liable for prosecution for corruption.[63] Since 2010 the Ukrainian press brought up thousands of examples of criminal cases in which state officials, as well as politicians and businessmen linked to the then-rulingParty of Regions, were shown leniency unprecedented for the general population of suspects.[64]
In the early 2010sUkrainian media, particularly theUkrayinska Pravda, regularly unveiled millionaire lifestyles of Ukrainian politicians and public servants,[66] utterly at odds with their declared official incomes.[67]
According to historianAndrew Wilson, as of 2016 progress in reducing corruption was poor.[68] A 2015 survey showed that 72% of adults blamed "corruption of power" for the lack of progress in reform.[68]
A 2016 requirement forMPs to declare their wealth led to a declared cumulative wealth of about $460 million for the 413 MPs.[69] Reacting to public criticism, MPs cancelled a salary rise that would have doubled their monthly salary.[70] This measure was part of an Anti-Corruption Package passed into law in 2014, which was a requirement of international financial support for Ukraine and a prerequisite to eligibility for visa-free travel within theEuropean Union.[69][71]
In the early 2010sUkrainian politicians and analysts described the system of justice in Ukraine as "rotten to the core"[74][75] and complained about political pressure put on judges and corruption.[76] Independent lawyers andhuman rights activists complained that Ukrainian judges regularly came under pressure to hand down a certain verdict.[77] Ukraine's court system was widely regarded as corrupt.[78] AUkrainian Justice Ministry survey in 2009 revealed that only 10% of respondents trusted the nation's court system. Less than 30% believed that it was still possible to get a fair trial.[74] Althoughjudicial independence exists in principle, in practice there was little separation of juridical andpolitical powers. Judges were subjected to pressure from political and business interests.[79]
A 2017 Reuters article quoted then-PMVolodymyr Groysman, saying that "the weakest link in our fight against corruption is the Ukrainian court"; giving an example of 30 judges "with annual salaries ranging from US$10,000-13,000" who ownedPorsches.[80] As another example, in 2012, Volodymyr Rokytskyi, Deputy Head of Ukraine'sSecurity Service, was photographed in public wearing aUS$32,000luxurywristwatch—even though its price amounted to his yearly official income—at ajoint Ukrainian-American event dedicated to fightingillegal drugs.[81][unreliable source?] In the 2010s Ukrainian judges were arrested while taking bribes.[82]
In the early 2010s critics also complained that officials and their children (the latter known as "mazhory"[83]) received favourable sentences compared with common citizens.[84][85]
In May 2023, on the orders of theNational Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and theSpecialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, the President of theSupreme Court of UkraineVsevolod Kniaziev was detained while allegedly receiving abribe.[88] Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Service (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) reported on their social media accounts about allegations ofcorruption in the country's Supreme Court of Ukraine. Anti Corruption officials said that “NABU and SAP have uncovered massive corruption in the Supreme Court, specifically plans to profit unfairly from the Supreme Court leadership and judges.”[89]
In 2016, many of Ukraine'smajor provincial highways were in very poor condition, with anUkravtodor official stating that 97% of roads needed repair. The road repair budget was set at about ₴20 billion, but corruption caused the budget to be poorly spent.[90]
In 2015 corruption allegations were made againstEnergoatom, Ukraine's statenuclear power operator.[91] In 2016, Energoatom's assets and bank accounts were frozen by Ukrainian courts over allegedly unpaid debts, which Energoatom appealed.[92][93] In June 2016 its bank accounts were unfrozen.[94]
On November 12, 2025 a National Anti‑Corruption Bureau of Ukraineinvestigation into an alleged Energoatom US$100 million kickback scheme led to the resignation of Justice Minister (and formerly Energy Minister) German Galushchenko, the resignation of Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk, and the dismissal of Energoatom's supervisory board. Grynchuk was Galushchenko's deputy Energy Minister and succeeded him. The scheme was uncovered by a 15-month investigation, code-named "Midas", which included 1,000 hours of audio recordings and about 70 search operations. Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko first announced only Galushchenko's suspension, but hours later President Zelenskyy called for the resignation of both Galushchenko and Grynchuk. Both quickly complied.
The investigation alleges that contractors supplying services or goods to Energoatom were forced to pay kickbacks. Among the seven suspects named by prosectors is Timur Mindich, a businessman and former associate of President Zelenskyy. Mindich co-owned the entertainment company Kvartal 95 with Zelenskyy prior to the latter's election to the presidency. Also named were Galushchenko adviser Ihor Myronyuk and Dmytro Basov, executive director for security at Energoatom. Galushchenko himself was not one of the seven suspects named.
President Zelenskyy stated on his officialTelegram channel that the Justice Minister and the Energy Minister “could not remain in their positions” in light of the allegations, "as a matter of trust". Zelenskyy stressed that given the hardships faced by Ukrainians as a result of the ongoing Russian attacks on the country's energy infrastructure, "It is absolutely unacceptable that there are still some [corruption] schemes in the energy sector."
The Economy Ministry annouced that a new supervisory board for Energoatom would be named within a week, and that Group of Seven countries would be consulted while the new board was formed. Energoatom would undergo an audit which would be reviewed by law enforcement officials.[95][96]
In the 2000s and 2010shigher education in Ukraine was plagued with bribery.[97][98][99] In 2011 33% of all students claimed they had encountered corruption in their school, 29% heard about cases of corruption from other students, while 38% had not encountered corruption.[100] According to Transparency International research done in 2008, 47.3% of university students stated that a bribe had been demanded from them; of those, 29% had paid this bribe freely.[40] Students could "buy" a college entry, exam results, marking doctoral and/or master's theses.[40][99]
Bribes ranged from US$10 to US$50 for an exam pass to several thousand for entry to a university.[40] According to government sources, bribes varied from US$80 to US$21,500.[40] Salaries of teachers and professors were low in Ukraine compared with other professions; this may have tempted them to demand bribes.[40][99] According to Ararat Osipian entire corruption hierarchies formed in Ukraine's colleges and universities.[101] These hierarchies evolved from the 1990s as the result of uncontrolled and rampant corruption.[102] Ararat claimed in 2010 that corrupt ruling regimes control corrupt universities and force them into compliance,[103] including during the elections.[104] This was aided by universities largely still having Stalinist-type bureaucracies, unable to transform.[105]
Until 2015 university autonomy was nonexistent.[106] In 2015 theUkrainian parliament passed a new law on higher education to give universities more autonomy, including control over their own finances.[99] The aim was to encourage private investment, fundraising and the creation ofendowments.[99]
In the 2000s Ukrainian government officials were caught with fake university diplomas.[107]
In 2012PresidentViktor Yanukovych reported that only about 23 percent of social service funds go to those who actually need them.[28] The Ukrainian media featured many stories revealing that evenparliamentarians illegally received social benefits, fraudulently claiming to be war andChornobyl veterans.[28]
Though medical care in state-run hospitals is theoretically free for Ukrainians, patients' paying money there to ensure they receive the treatment required was widespread in the early 21st century.[108][109] In 2012 advocacy groups accusedHealth Ministry officials of embezzling money that should have been used to treatAIDS patients by buying AIDS drugs at hugely inflated prices and then receivingkickbacks.[110]
Research conducted byErnst & Young in 2011 and 2012 showed that the practice of top managers accepting bribes increased by 9 percent in 2011 and 15 percent in 2012.[28] Another 4 percent were ready to pay bribes in order to hide the details of their financial performance.[28]
In 2016, politicianNatalia Korolevska estimated that "Corruption has forced business to go in the shadow where now we have 45% ofour economy".[112]
In the early 2010s, the representative of oneUnited Kingdom-based company claimed non-Ukrainian companies often lost contracts if they did not pay bribes or failed to "out-bribe" their competitors.[77] Ukrainians and business representatives claimed that "Business ventures above a certain level require palm-greasing of some functionary at some level".[77]
According to Ararat Osipian due to endemic corruption, Ukraine failed to sustain itseconomic growth trends in the 2000s.[113] The corruption, perceived as reckless, that marked President Viktor Yanukovich's rule contributed tohis downfall in 2014 and left the country'sarmy ill-equipped to counterRussia's invasion of Crimea.[114]
In 2008 Transparency International estimated that 30 to 50 percent of all Ukrainians had faced government corruption.[40] Juhani Grossmann (working for an a.o. Management Systems International project)[115] claimed in 2009 that "Ukrainians pay roughly ₴3.5 billion, or more than US$400 million, in bribes annually."[44] The previous year, he claimed that the figure was US$700 million.[116]
Oleksandr Turchynov, former chairman of theSecurity Service of Ukraine, claimed that in the summer of 2005 Yushchenko prevented an investigation into allegedly fraudulent practices in the transport ofTurkmennatural gas to Ukraine and prevented the arrest of Boyko forabuse of office while headingNaftogaz:[121][122]In a 2005 interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, "Turchynov stated that Yushchenko told him in mid-August to stop 'persecuting my men' and that the investigation ofRosUkrEnergo was 'creating a conflict with Russian PresidentVladimir Putin'".[122] A 2008 survey showed that 73% of people in Ukraine considered thesecond Tymoshenko Government's actions against corruption ineffective; comparable figures for the U.S. and the UK were 73% and 39%.[52] In a survey in 2001, whenKuchma was president, 80% of Ukrainians "totally/fairly agreed" with the statement: "The present government has no real interest in punishing corruption".[38]
Like his predecessor Yushchenko,[117] PresidentViktor Yanukovych (and hisAzarov Government[126]) made the fight against corruption a spearhead in his domestic policies.[125][127][128] Political opponents of Yanukovych accused him of using his anti-corruption campaign for politically motivated trials; the general public in Ukraine largely shared this view.[129][130][77][131] President Yanukovych denied this.[128]
In 2018, a law came into force requiring that cases concerning corruption be brought directly to theHigh Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine.[137][138] In June 2018 President Poroshenko expected the court to be established before the end of 2018.[137] In 2019 the High Anti-Corruption Court did start to work.[139]
Due to the IMF concern that oligarchs would use the courts to seize bailout money, parliament passed a bill in 2020 to prevent courts from reversing bank nationalizations. The bill would combat a lawsuit by oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky and others seeking to regain control of PrivatBank, the recipient of a $5.5 billion 2016 bailout and an alleged "money laundering machine" under Kolomoisky.[140]
In 2020, theConstitutional Court of Ukraine ruled that anti-corruption legislation, including the mandatory electronic declaration of income, was unconstitutional.[141] PresidentZelensky warned that if parliament did not restore these anti-corruption laws, foreign aid, loans and visa-free travel to the European Union were at risk. The Governor of theNational Bank of Ukraine reported that Ukraine would not receive the scheduled $700 million IMF loan before the end of 2020 because of the issue. IMF assessment teams had not visited Kyiv for eight months. A visit was necessary for further IMF loan tranches to be released.[142][143]
According to Ukrainians, the most corrupt in the early 2010s were thejudiciary, thepolice, public servants, thehealth service andparliament.[48] AGallup opinion poll in 2025 found that 85% of Ukrainians believed corruption was widespread throughout their government, little changed from previous years which averaged 84% from 2007 to 2024.[149]
Corruption Perceptions Index ratings in Ukraine 1998–2018. Lower scores reflect higher corruption levels; higher scores mean lower corruption levels.
Transparency International produces an annual report listing each country'sCorruption Perceptions Index score. This "score relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people and country analysts and, through 2011, ranged between 10 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt)."[150] From 2012 on, the scores were presented on a 0-100 scale.[151]
The following table lists Ukraine's place in the Corruption Perceptions Index table, based on Transparency International's annual reports from 1999 onward. The method used to compute the scores changed in 2012 to allow a country's score to be compared from year to year. Prior to 2012, a country's score can only be meaningfully compared to the scores of other countries in the same year.[31]
Note: For 1999 and 2000, the data were listed as 1998 and 1999 respectively. From 2001, the data listed are stated to be for the year of the annual report. Up to 2005, the annual report included some measures of the uncertainty of the index scores; these data were omitted from the annual reports from 2006 onwards, but were contained in the CPI report.
^Bazaluk, Oleg (2016)."Introduction".Corruption in Ukraine: Rulers' Mentality and the Destiny of the Nation. Cambridge Scholars. pp. XIV.ISBN9781443896894.
^Kuzio, T. (2014). Crime, politics and business in 1990s Ukraine. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 47(2), 195-210
^Leshchenko, S., 2013a. Yakshcho Akhmetov ne zupynyt Yanukovycha, to rozdilyt vidpovidalnist iz nym. Ukrayinska Pravda Blog. December 3.Archived September 1, 2015, at theWayback Machine.
^Koshiw, J.V., 2013. Abuse of Power. Corruption in the Office of the President. Artemia Books.
^Kulyk, V. (2014). Ukrainian nationalism since the outbreak of Euromaidan. Ab Imperio, 2014(3), 94-122.
^Kulyk, V. (2016). National identity in Ukraine: Impact of Euromaidan and the war. Europe-Asia Studies, 68(4), 588-608.
^Shveda, Y., & Park, J. H. (2016). Ukraine's revolution of dignity: The dynamics of Euromaidan. Journal of Eurasian Studies, 7(1), 85-91.
^Åslund, A. (2014). The maidan and beyond: oligarchs, corruption, and European integration. Journal of Democracy, 25(3), 64-73.
^Kuzio, T. (2014). Crime, politics and business in 1990s Ukraine. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 47(2), 195-210.
^Zhuk, S. I. (2014). Ukrainian Maidan as the last anti-Soviet revolution, or the methodological dangers of Soviet nostalgia (Notes of an American Ukrainian historian from inside the field of Russian Studies in the United States). Ab Imperio, 2014(3), 195-208.
^Marples, D. R., & Mills, F. V. (Eds.). (2014). Ukraine's Euromaidan: Analyses of a Civil Revolution (Vol. 138). Columbia University Press.
^Onuch, O. (2014). The Maidan and beyond: who were the protesters?. Journal of Democracy, 25(3), 44-51.
^Shelley, L. (1998). Organized crime and corruption in Ukraine: impediments to the development of a free market economy. Demokratizatsiya, 6(4), 648-63.
^abTransparency InternationalGlobal Corruption Barometer 2009 ReportArchived June 7, 2009, at theWayback Machine, June 2, 2009,ISBN978-3-935711-28-9 pdf Abs1:22, 32, 33. In Ukraine, 1200 people were interviewed face to face in a national survey November 4–12, 2008. The survey in the UK was of 1018 people interviewed online November 27 – December 1, 2008. The survey in the U.S. was of 1017 people interviewed online October 30 – November 4, 2008. (pdf ABs1:22).
^The confidence range is a measure of the degree of certainty about the Corruption Perception Index score. Nominally, the true score has a 1 in 20 probability of being above the upper range, and a 1 in 20 probability of being below the lower range. If the number of surveys available was low, then these 1 in 20 probabilities might really only be 1 in 10.
^Ideally 12 surveys should be used for a country. If less than 3 surveys were available, then that country was not included in the Corruption Perceptions Index.
