Public opinion and realities: how corruption affects the economy and the trust of Ukrainians
Kyiv • UNN
Ukraine dropped to 105th place out of 180 countries in the Corruption Perception Index, losing one point due to a formal approach to reforms. This indicates stagnation in the fight against corruption, despite active legislative actions and successes in exposing corruption schemes.
Over the past year, Ukraine lost one point in the Corruption Perception Index, ranking 105th out of 180 countries. UNN reports on the key factors that contribute most to the spread of corruption in our country and how the level of corruption affects citizens' trust in state institutions and the political system as a whole, on International Anti-Corruption Day.
Corruption Index in Ukraine
As reported by Transparency International, according to last year's results, Ukraine has 35 points out of 100 in the Index and ranks 105th out of 180 countries. The rating states that Ukraine lost one point in the Index due to a formal approach to implementing many reforms or a deliberate stalling in their implementation.
The loss of points in 2024 indicates that focusing solely on the programmatic implementation of Ukraine's commitments is not enough, and the implementation of initiated reforms is not as high-quality as planned.
Minus one point is still a change within the margin of error, but even such a result is of considerable importance.
This decline may indicate a certain stagnation in the fight against corruption, even despite the active legislative and governmental actions implemented last year. Ukraine's CPI-2024 indicator should serve as a signal to the authorities that negative trends have intensified in the country on the way to reducing the level of corruption. And to overcome these obstacles, isolated declarative updates are not enough - systemic changes in approaches to governing the country must be implemented.
Fight against corruption in Ukraine
On the other hand, Ukraine has achieved some success due to high-profile cases of exposing corruption schemes and high-level investigations. This has led to positive reforms and, consequently, positive results. Over the past two years, 142 sentences have been handed down for corruption crimes.
In addition, the Verkhovna Rada expanded the powers of NABU and SAP, and also adopted a law on the start of reforming the Accounting Chamber, which provides for expanding the mandate of this body to all public funds, and not just state budget funds.
In addition, changes have been made to procurement legislation, and the State Anti-Corruption Program is being implemented. An important event was also the restoration of electronic declaration and the resumption of reporting by political parties. However, along with these achievements, numerous scandals have also arisen.
We have witnessed numerous high-profile scandals, negative trends and decisions that can completely negate the achievements listed. As an example, the Hrynkevych case and other cases related, in particular, to the procurement of the Ministry of Defense are cited. As well as interference in the tender for the procurement of works for the restoration of the Okhmatdyt children's hospital.
Impact of corruption on the economy
Such incidents, according to economist Oleh Penzin, also have serious economic consequences. He adds that corrupt schemes in law enforcement agencies allow criminal funds to remain outside official accounting, which harms the country's economic development in the long term.
When we say, for example, that Ukrainian customs does not pay, conditionally, 200 billion UAH annually to the state budget due to smuggling schemes - we understand that all this is based on corrupt abuses. For example, conditionally speaking, these "Mindich tapes" - corrupt officials laundered 100 million dollars, which means that taxes on this amount were paid less to the state budget by "Energoatom". That is, corruption is the basis for the existence of the shadow economy. When we say that some law enforcement agencies "cover" some "shadow schemes", then first of all it is about carrying out economic activities without appropriate tax payments.
Prevalence of corruption in various spheres
According to a study conducted on behalf of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention in 2024, 18.7% of Ukrainians had their own corruption experience.
Most often, citizens had corruption experience in the field of construction and land relations - 44.1% of those who received relevant services. The second place in terms of the prevalence of corruption manifestations is occupied by medicine and law enforcement agencies: 28.5% of respondents who contacted these spheres reported corruption experience.
The lowest level of corruption, according to citizens, is in ASCs.
Among entrepreneurs, customs is considered the most affected by corruption. The second place in terms of the prevalence of corruption is occupied by service providers for connecting and maintaining electricity, gas, water supply and sewerage systems: 32.2% of entrepreneurs reported having corruption experience in this area. The third place was shared by two areas with comparable indicators: the activities of law enforcement agencies (28.5%) and construction and land relations (27.9%).
Public perception of corruption
A study conducted by the research company "Sociopolis" in November 2025 showed that 78.2% of Ukrainians believe that the level of corruption has increased during the war, and 52.5% believe that events in the country are developing in the wrong direction.
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Also, the article states that the vast majority of respondents are also familiar with the high-profile NABU investigations related to the "Mindich tapes":
The level of awareness of the mentioned investigation among those who know about it varies - 44.2% of respondents said that they had heard quite a lot about the "Mindich tapes" and have an idea of the essence of this case, while 45.8% of respondents had heard something about the mentioned NABU investigation, but do not have a complete picture of it.
In addition, during the survey, it was found that, in the opinion of citizens, the Office of the President and the Verkhovna Rada contribute most to corruption.
Most often, respondents named among those who, in their opinion, contribute most to corruption in government bodies: the Office of the President of Ukraine (19.4%), personally the President of Ukraine (18.8%) and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and people's deputies (18.0%). Quite often, among the main "sources" of corruption in government bodies, respondents also named the people themselves and the mentality of the population of Ukraine (11.2%) and law enforcement agencies (police, SBU, prosecutor's office) (9.8%).
Various surveys and studies show that Ukrainians consider manifestations of corruption to be one of the biggest problems in the state.
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