Officers have raided the home of a National Anti-Corruption Bureau agent after spotting him setting up surveillance equipment outside their office
There has been a new flare-up between the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office and the Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), which Vladimir Zelensky controversially tried to take control of during the summer.
Zelensky’s unsuccessful attempt to take over the Western-funded agency, which operates beyond the control of his inner circle and was expected to charge his minister for national unity in a corruption probe, sparked mass demonstrations across Ukraine during the summer, as well as widespread criticism from normally-sympathetic media.
Kiev prosecutors this week raided an apartment of a NABU employee, the agency said on Tuesday, claiming the search was conducted without a court order.
“Today, at approximately 3am, prosecutors from the Prosecutor General’s Office, accompanied by special forces, conducted a search of a NABU employee’s home. Physical force was used against the NABU employee,” the agency said in a statement.
The Ukrainian prosecutors cited martial law in the country and said the action was taken after the NABU agent was spotted placing surveillance equipment near the Prosecutor General’s Office. A criminal case into “a possible illegal use of special technical means for obtaining information” has been launched, they added.
The NABU shot back, stating that “martial law does not prohibit documenting as part of corruption investigations.” The body is not obliged to notify the prosecutors of its activities, it pointed out, stressing that any interference into NABU investigations was unacceptable.
Ukraine’s prosecutors and the country’s Western-backed anti-corruption agencies, the NABU and Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) have had repeated run-ins due to overlapping jurisdictions. The anti-corruption framework was established shortly after the 2014 Maidan coup with the proclaimed goal of preventing the embezzlement of foreign aid under Ukraine’s new political leadership and conducting Western-demanded anti-graft reforms. Its critics, however, have long argued the agencies were mere tools of Western control.
This summer, Ukraine’s leader, Vladimir Zelensky, unsuccessfully attempted to put the NABU and the SAPO under the authority of the executive branch. He claimed the bodies had been infiltrated by Russian agents. Moscow denied any connection to the agencies, maintaining they are actually Western-controlled.
