Within the Corruption Perceptions Index 2025 (CPI), Ukraine gained one level. We've landed once more at 36 factors—precisely the place we have been in 2023. I'll be frank: there are few grounds for loud optimism. And looking out again on the occasions of final 12 months, this can be very tough to seek out any strong basis for illusions a few speedy leap ahead.
And but, over the previous 12 months the nation has gone by a tectonic shift. One which relates exactly to the character of how corruption is perceived, the very basis Transparency Worldwide measures. We didn’t obtain the anticipated bundle of systemic reforms from the authorities, however we witnessed one thing unprecedented: Ukrainian society's full moral rejection of corruption. When public outrage turns into an element the authorities can not ignore, they’re compelled to yield.
The one query is whether or not these shifts are sturdy and whether or not they can change the structure of corruption in Ukraine for good.
Why is that this consequence taking place regardless of authorities motion?
I'll admit it: once I noticed the primary CPI numbers, I felt a sure dissonance. On paper, we're up. Within the actuality of 2025, we noticed a near-total paralysis of systemic anti-corruption change. Most reforms didn't simply decelerate—they moved into the chance zone. Even the critically vital transformation of ARMA was accompanied by such delays in Parliament that they resulted in direct monetary losses for the state price range.
As a substitute of systemic steps, we noticed an escalation of corruption scandals. At one level, it turned onerous to shake the impression that key anti-corruption "safeguards" have been being intentionally dismantled. How else can one interpret a state of affairs by which folks from the president's internal circle turn out to be topics of NABU and SAPO investigations?
It's vital to state this actually: legislation enforcement exercise in these instances will not be the results of political management's goodwill or some inner "self-cleansing" of the system. It’s solely the results of NABU and SAPO's skilled autonomy. They saved urgent top-level corrupt actors even underneath direct political and coercive strain.
So the place did this level enhance come from?
An in depth evaluation of the CPI elements confirms that we’re coping with a singular shift in notion. For years, our group has defined that the Index doesn’t measure the bodily quantity of bribes; it measures how corruption is seen and perceived by consultants and enterprise — each inside and out of doors the nation. We at all times wish to see regular "pluses," as a result of they sign accomplice belief. However final 12 months, even contained in the nation, there was no sense of progress. Quite the opposite, we felt a well-known and extremely harmful style of a return to arbitrariness, the place actual combating is changed by imitation.
Exterior components additionally weighed on the state of affairs. We can not ignore the change in the US' focus concerning Ukraine's reform agenda. The demanding stance of Western allies eased considerably, whereas European leaders had to focus on their very own safety. Fixed assurances of unconditional assist for Ukraine created a harmful phantasm of permissiveness "on the Pechersk hills"—as if, in home coverage, something would now be tolerated.
Folks within the president's circle felt past attain. And society gave a transparent response: Ukraine in 2025 is now not the nation it was twelve years in the past. The avalanche of public anger moved in a really totally different path than the initiators of final July's reform rollback had anticipated.
Who truly saved our numbers?
The CPI captures processes dynamically during the last two years. For me, essentially the most telling sign was that Ukraine gained 5 factors without delay within the Bertelsmann Basis's analysis—an index that information whether or not officers face actual accountability for corruption. In different phrases, researchers noticed and assessed not politicians' guarantees, however actual procedural actions by the NABU, the SAPO, and the HACC.
That’s the core reply to why the authorities failed to interrupt the anti-corruption vertical in the summertime of 2025. If detectives' work was once perceived as one thing intangible, we now have proof: this work is seen and counted by international establishments and by Ukrainian residents alike. Nobody would have taken to the streets to defend powerless our bodies. As a substitute, we witnessed the primary main social protest of the full-scale battle interval.
That public resolve had deep that means. In July, folks got here out with cardboard indicators to defend establishments; by the top of the 12 months, we understood that combating corruption is a matter of bodily safety — as fundamental as warmth, electrical energy, and protection capability. Residents preserved NABU and SAPO, and within the fall, these companies uncovered the "Barrier" scheme and the high-profile Mindich case. These investigations actually stopped the state from sliding into the abyss of chaos.
What’s extra, 2025 proved that political affect is now not an indulgence. At the moment, legislation enforcement can attain any corrupt actor — a problem even for developed democracies. If instances was once launched primarily after investigative media experiences, anti-corruption establishments themselves have now seized the initiative. It is a basically new high quality of the struggle.
Breakthrough technique: what comes subsequent?
Nonetheless, we ought to be practical: even NABU and SAPO at peak effectiveness can not transform the state of affairs with out systemic reforms. Politicians could attempt to play on their very own area by their very own guidelines, or sabotage votes for months. However in the long run, obligations must be met. That is now not a matter of "good conduct" for the IMF. It’s a matter of survival.
We perceive it's unimaginable to implement all reforms without delay due to shortages of assets and human capital. However some steps require not billion-dollar investments, solely political will. Transparency Worldwide Ukraine has recognized six priorities for 2026:
- Unconditional safeguarding of the independence of anti-corruption establishments.
- Higher ends in confiscating legal property.
- Stronger institutional capability and focus of the NACP.
- Complete modernization of the Legal Process Code to make sure swift justice.
- Involvement of worldwide consultants in choosing HQCJ members.
- Full adoption and implementation of the State Anti-Corruption Program.
Delivering on these factors will make it potential to transform high-profile notices of suspicion into actual convictions. This 12 months's further level is progress on the margin of error. However for Ukraine it weighs extra: our society has definitively modified its paradigm.
Corruption has stopped being "background noise" or the federal government's inner affair. This intolerance, documented in protests and in motion, reshapes not solely how the world perceives us, but additionally the very boundary of what’s acceptable contained in the state.
Andrii Borovyk, Govt Director of Transparency Worldwide Ukraine