It took two revolutions and a war to push Ukrainian government officials to finally move forward with the much-needed reforms.
Now, one person with immense powers and vast popular support is dismantling — or allowing others to dismantle — the post-revolution achievements of Ukrainian reformers.
President Volodymyr Zelensky came to power promising fast changes. Unfortunately, the destruction of post-EuroMaidan reforms is also happening fast.
After the pro-democratic EuroMaidan Revolution successfully toppled President Viktor Yanukovych’s kleptocratic regime, several key reforms came to be.
The key reforms included establishing a system of corporate governance in the state-owned Naftogaz, securing the independence of Ukraine’s National Bank and creating the transparent, online procurement system Prozorro.
Several specialized law enforcement agencies were formed in an attempt to fight embezzlement and decrease corruption.
Yet, the institutions proved to be weak and the desire to rule by decree, strong.
Since March 2020, multibillion-dollar projects have been exempt from the need to pass through the award-winning Prozorro platform. As of now, medical procurement contracts worth $1.2 billion in total, a $3.5 billion road construction project and $200 million on projects related to Independence Day festivities have all been exempted from public oversight.
In July 2020, the independent head of the National Bank Yakiv Smolii was forced to resign. He cited pressure from the president’s office. A year later, over 30% of all top managers have resigned. Most of them cited pressure coming from the bank’s new head Kyrylo Shevchenko, a Zelensky appointee and loyalist.
In late April, the government arbitrarily fired the head of Naftogaz Andriy Kobolev throwing the corporate governance reforms off a cliff. Such an abrupt firing even caused questions from Ukraine’s foreign partners.
Meanwhile, the head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine Artem Sytnyk has been under attack from the day Zelensky took office, while the crucial Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office hasn’t had a head for nearly a year.
That’s not even close to being a record — the State Investigation Bureau has lacked a permanent head for 20 months. A transparent competition is not even scheduled. In its absence, the president himself has appointed its acting head.
All Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, the parliament and the government are ruled in accordance with the will of one person — Zelensky. Institutions are broken and reforms are nowhere to be seen.
Some reforms are still hanging on by a thread, but the worst thing would be waking up years after the revolution and understanding that everything achieved has been lost.
