Despite respect for Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s wartime leadership, pressure is building on the president over what his critics call democratic backsliding in Ukraine.
Kyiv’s wartime international partners need to clearly call out creeping authoritarianism, according to Ukraine’s former leader and Zelenskyy archrival Petro Poroshenko, as the EU on Tuesday noted issues with the country’s commitment to rooting out corruption.
“Our democracy has been a source of strength and resilience; undermining it would weaken Ukraine far more than any external criticism ever could,” Poroshenko, who led Ukraine from 2014 to 2019, told POLITICO in an interview.
“As we fight Russian autocracy, we cannot afford to drift toward autocratic practices at home,” Poroshenko added, in a stark warning. “Ukraine does not have the luxury of losing its independence, but neither does it have the luxury of losing its democracy.”
His appeal to international partners came just hours before the release of a report Tuesday by the European Commission that offered a fairly positive review of Ukraine’s readiness to advance EU accession talks — but also expressed some reservations about democratic backsliding.
Poroshenko heads the largest opposition party in the Ukrainian parliament, and he and Zelenskyy share a deep animosity for each other. They clashed and traded barbs in heated debates during the 2019 election, which Zelenskyy won in a landslide. Aides of the two men concede in private that both harbor almost visceral dislike for each other.
The former president was speaking just days after the arraignment of a respected former energy executive who’s been critical of Zelenskyy’s handling of Ukraine’s energy sector.
The indictment last week of Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, ex-chief of the main state-owned power company, has ignited a firestorm of criticism. Civil society leaders and opposition lawmakers argue his prosecution is an example of aggressive lawfare used by the leadership to try to intimidate Zelenskyy’s political opponents, independent journalists and anti-corruption campaigners.
Zelenskyy’s office has declined repeated requests to comment from POLITICO on the case and rule-of-law issues.
Kudrytskyi, who has labeled the charges against him “nonsense,” told POLITICO this week that he has no doubt he’s being targeted by the State Bureau of Investigation with Zelenskyy’s approval.
‘Power-enforcement’
Poroshenko himself is also ensnared in the courts.
He’s blocked from accessing his bank accounts and prohibited from traveling abroad and attending parliamentary sessions because of sanctions the Zelenskyy administration imposed on him following an indictment on treason and corruption charges.
The sanctions could potentially prevent him from running in an election. Poroshenko has vehemently denied the charges, saying they are trumped up.
“Ukraine’s partners still can, without reducing their support for the country at war, send authorities a clear and compelling signal that increasing use of sanctions and targeted criminal prosecutions to suppress independent journalists, anti-corruption agencies and political opposition will not be tolerated,” he said.
Poroshenko said that “general lukewarm statements about the importance of fundamental values and the inviolability of human rights” from the EU and other allies will no longer suffice. That approach has been tried before but to no avail, he added.
“They will just be met with the old claim that all cases of persecution are the actions of independent law enforcement agencies, beyond the president’s control and responsibility,” he said.
“The increasing use of sanctions and targeted criminal prosecutions by President Zelenskyy’s administration requires a strong and visible response from our allies,” he added. But the former president said wartime aid for Ukraine shouldn’t be used as leverage because “any action that weakens our ability to resist Russian aggression will not improve the situation.”
Poroshenko also accused Zelenskyy of weaponizing Ukraine’s law-enforcement bodies and transforming them into “power-enforcement” agencies instead.
He cited, as an example, the State Bureau of Investigation which “functions as an instrument for carrying out political orders against opponents,” he said.
Time to step up
Tuesday’s report, unveiled in Brussels by the Commission, is unlikely to satisfy either Poroshenko or Ukraine’s civil rights campaigners.
They say Brussels has adopted too timid an approach when it comes to what they warn is democratic backsliding.
The report offered a generally positive overview of Ukraine’s readiness to advance in EU accession talks, and praised the country’s “remarkable commitment” to its membership bid.
While the Commission highlighted some risks of Ukrainian democratic backsliding, it made no mention of the complaints in Ukraine about prosecutions of Zelenskyy’s political opponents. It also said the enforcement of fundamental rights has been satisfactory and “the government has maintained its overall respect for fundamental rights and shown its commitment to their protection.”
The report did, however, call for an urgent reversal of negative trends in the fight against corruption and for an acceleration in rule-of-law reforms.
“Recent negative trends, including a growing pressure on the specialized anti-corruption agencies and civil society, must be decisively reversed,” the Commission said, a reference to the attempt in July by the Ukrainian government to strip a pair of anti-corruption agencies of their independence.
A civil society outcry and anti-government street protests, the first to be mounted since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, forced the government to back down and restore the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.
Zelenskyy’s political rivals argue that targeted prosecutions, and the hampering of the anti-corruption agencies from probing presidential insiders, have increased in tempo and intensity in recent months as talk mounts of a possible election next year.
Poroshenko said he feared democratic backsliding is providing ammunition for those in Europe and the U.S. who want to withdraw support from Ukraine as it resists Russian revanchism.
“When critics are targeted and anti-corruption activists are attacked, it gives arguments to those abroad, especially to Russian propaganda, to challenge support for Ukraine. It also demoralizes Ukrainians themselves,” Poroshenko warned.
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