“What’s Up With the Economy?” is a podcast by the Centre for Economic Strategy in cooperation with Hromadske Radio, supported by PrivatBank.
Every week, hosts Anheina Zazadex and Maksym Samoiliuk talk with experts, entrepreneurs, analysts, and government officials about what is happening with Ukraine’s economy.
While the podcast is held in Ukrainian, we decided to summarise each issue with the most important insights.
In the latest episode of the podcast, we discuss how Ukrainian businesses have come under pressure from law enforcement agencies, whether draft law No. 12439 can truly protect entrepreneurs, and what risks it poses for society.
Our guest — Tetiana ShevchukHead of International Relations at the Anti-Corruption Action Centre.
We’ve captured the most important takeaways for our English-speaking audience:
- What does “pressure on business” mean in practice?
In the Ukrainian context, “pressure on business” does not mean stricter regulation or higher taxes — it refers to law enforcement agencies abusing their power to block or paralyse companies.
Tetiana explains that pressure on businesses in Ukraine often takes the form of criminal cases, harassment of executives, property seizures, frozen accounts, and suspended activities. This, in turn, blocks normal operations, generates huge losses, and forces companies to spend heavily on legal defence.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion, this problem has only worsened. Alongside economic challenges, businesses now face growing interference from security services — epitomised by the figure of the “major” from law enforcement — who can suddenly disrupt or paralyse their work.
“There were presidential promises, numerous advisory boards and forums where everyone assured that things would improve. But the reality is: today everything is fine, and tomorrow a criminal case is opened against an entrepreneur for an act committed 10 years ago, or all accounts are frozen — and we have to start all over again.”
- Why could amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code create more problems than they solve?
At first glance, the idea looks like an attempt to give businesses more protection. But according to Shevchuk, the whole approach is flawed:
“We have two football teams playing against each other — supposedly equal, meaning business and law enforcement. But when one of the teams — law enforcement — is playing a ‘fixed match,’ constantly breaking the rules and even having the referee on their side, changing the rules of the game won’t help. We can rewrite the Criminal Procedure Code twice or three times, but in the end, everything will still work the same way.”
The proposed amendments could undermine not only entrepreneurs but society as a whole. If adopted, they would risk leaving critical cases uninvestigated — not just corruption, but also crimes against life and health, environmental violations, and other serious offences. In effect, the changes would weaken accountability mechanisms across the board, eroding protection for citizens and the public interest.
Tetiana recalls that Ukrainian society once consciously chose a different approach:
“We as a society once consciously chose a different approach: we agreed it’s better to overload the system with case registrations than to have a situation where a crime isn’t registered and a victim doesn’t get justice. Now we are being brought back to the 2012 standard, when an investigator would again decide: did we provide enough evidence that our competitor smuggled goods or not; is there enough proof in a journalistic investigation about corruption or not.”
Her conclusion is clear: the draft law should be rejected, and only those provisions that are truly needed by business — for example, regarding asset seizures or investigators’ liability — should be discussed separately.
- Can anti-corruption institutions (e.g., the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU)/Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) help honest businesses?
While anti-corruption bodies don’t work directly with most companies, they do change the overall environment:
“NABU and SAPO are more about restoring justice. Businesses may not see a direct impact on their operations, but these institutions change the climate and the practices. When NABU and SAPO began investigating economic crimes, they transformed investigative methods and introduced many approaches that were later adopted by ESBU, the police, and other agencies.
…
For example, NABU and SAPO even have a special department that investigates only Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railways). It’s such a massive state enterprise that it requires a large number of detectives to oversee its procurement. As a result, those who previously couldn’t even enter Ukrzaliznytsia’s fuel tenders saw that, after NABU’s investigations, procurement started to be conducted properly. This sector felt the impact of their work.”
NABU and SAPO are restoring a sense of justice inside the country. But justice is also needed internationally: Russia must pay for the damage caused. That’s why we asked Tetiana about the prospects of confiscating frozen Russian assets.
- Russian assets: why the decision is inevitable, but not fast
Shevchuk stresses that confiscation of frozen Russian funds is only a matter of time:
“I don’t think we’ll see it in 2026. But sooner or later, we will come to this decision. Because there is no other resource, and the war continues, and the damage is real.”
Currently, the EU is discussing the option of a trust fund that would invest the frozen money and generate profits for Ukraine’s support:
“They say that Ursula von der Leyen herself has joined the discussions. For now, the EU is leaning towards creating a trust fund that will invest these assets more aggressively, manage them, and maximise returns — not just 2–3% a year, but bigger sums that can be channelled into Ukraine.”
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“What’s Up With the Economy?” is a podcast by the Centre for Economic Strategy in cooperation with Hromadske Radio, supported by PrivatBank.
The podcast is available in Ukrainian on different platforms by the link.
