Corruption overtakes Russian attacks as Ukrainians’ top threat, polls find

“I think it began consistently ranking first after the first wave of Mindichgate,” Hryniv told Radio NV, referring to corruption in surveys about the country’s greatest threats.

Hryniv said the concern reflects a genuine national problem, not merely public perception.

“There’s no smoke without fire,” he said. “If society sees the threat from corruption as this serious, then it doesn’t exist only ‘in people’s heads.’ It is a real, serious problem for the country.”

But Hryniv also argued that corruption has become a catchall political issue.

“The other problem is that corruption has become a populist cause and the discussion is no longer specific: What kind of corruption are we talking about? What form does it take? Who is to blame? Instead, it has simply become a constant talking point,” he said. “That is the other side of the problem. The public has become highly receptive to populism and readily embraces causes such as the fight against corruption. That is also true.”

He suggested that financial hardship, rising prices and the constant danger posed by drone and missile attacks may lead the public to somewhat overstate the scale of corruption, among other factors.

“But the government and politicians need to understand that corruption is under relentless public scrutiny,” Hryniv said. “It is a central concern for society as a whole, not just for anti-corruption agencies.”

Until recently, Hryniv said, the largest share of Ukrainians asked who was responsible for the country’s high level of corruption blamed anti-corruption agencies, believing they had not done enough to fight it.

He said that view changed after parliament and the president tried to restrict the powers of NABU, Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau, and SAPO, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.

“After parliament and the president tried to restrict the powers of the anti-corruption agencies — effectively sidelining NABU and SAPO — what happened? People realized that NABU and SAPO weren’t actually to blame,” Hryniv said. “First, they blamed parliament because it passed the law. Over time, they looked more closely and put all the blame on the president. The unlimited power the president now wields therefore brings unlimited responsibility, above all for corruption — not only corruption in his own circle, but corruption throughout the country, for which he is responsible.”

In a survey by the SOCIS Center for Social and Marketing Research published on Aug. 6, 49.3% of respondents identified high levels of corruption in government as the factor doing the most harm to the country’s overall situation. Another 44.6% chose repeated drone and missile attacks on energy, municipal and civilian infrastructure.

A Kyiv International Institute of Sociology survey published on May 6 found that 54% of respondents viewed corruption as the greater threat to Ukraine’s development, compared with 39% who chose war.