Independent competitions for leadership positions in National Police and SBI removed from government’s Anti-Corruption Strategy

Independent competitions for leadership positions in the National Police and the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) have been removed from the government’s draft Anti-Corruption Strategy. This was announced by the head of the Verkhovna Rada’s Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy Anastasia Radina (the Servant of the People faction) on Facebook, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

“A meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers is scheduled to be held today, at which they plan to consider the draft Anti-Corruption Strategy. On the way from the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) to the Cabinet of Ministers after the government committee, independent competitions for leadership positions in the National Police and the State Bureau of Investigation have already been removed from the document,” she said.

Radina noted that this weekend everyone witnessed not only a terrible tragedy, but also the inability of the law enforcement system to protect people in a timely manner, not “their loved ones”, and now the system is demonstrating that it is not even going to declare readiness for change.

“That is, the system, which was diagnosed on Saturday after seven victims, continues to protect itself from any transparent methods of electing leadership. Like the system, which was diagnosed earlier – in November 2025 after Operation Midas,” the MP noted.

According to her information, another competition – for the Prosecutor General – can be “shaken out” from the text of the strategy at the Cabinet of Ministers.

“Even the mild wording of the strategy – to create a competition commission that only recommends potential candidates to the President – is perceived as a threat,” she said.

Radina called on Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and members of the government to return the competitions for the National Police and the State Bureau of Investigation to the Anti-Corruption Strategy and leave elements of the competition for the Prosecutor General.

“It’s time to show what declarations about the European future and reforms are really worth,” the head of the anti-corruption committee called.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on April 19, the head of the patrol police department Yevhen Zhukov, who had held the position since November 2015, resigned over the actions of police officers during the April 18 terrorist attack in Kyiv, which left civilians in danger. Ukraine has gained 1 point in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) ranking compiled by the international anti-corruption NGO Transparency International for 2025, receiving 36 points out of 100, ranking 104th out of 182 countries.