Residence of leading anti-corruption activist set ablaze

The suburban Kyiv residence of Vitaliy Shabunin, a leading
anti-corruption activist, was attacked with an explosive and set on fire the
night of July 22, destroying its roof and other parts. No one was injured in
the incident, as Shabunin said he wasn’t home with his family and his parents,
the owners of the residence, were able to flee. Shabunin said the fire was
certainly not an accident. “Particularly for Avakov’s experts: exactly two
weeks ago, the natural gas service reviewed our meters and all connections,”
Shabunin wrote on his Facebook page in his first account, referring to Internal
Affairs Minister Arsen Avakov. The police opened a criminal case for the
deliberate destruction of property by arson.

However, Shabunin’s organization, the Anti-Corruption
Centre, said on July 23 the fire was a murder attempt on him and his family.
Centre co-founder Daria Kaleniuk reported that parts of explosives were found
at the scene, though police said the morning of July 24 that no such evidence
was found. “The nighttime arson is a part of a systemic campaign in which they
want to intimidate the Anti-Corruption Centre team and halt our activity,” the
centre’s statement said. “Already there is evidence the police is trying to
interfere with the appropriate investigation. Yes, the representatives of the
organization requested by telephone that the police not interfere with our
investigation without their participation. However, law enforcement authorities
ignored the requests, removing evidence from the crime scene without the
presence of Vitaliy, as the owner, and his lawyer.”

Leading Western institutions – including the E.U.
Delegation to Ukraine, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, and the World Bank – issued
statements expressing support for Shabunin and demanded complete investigations
of the arson attack. “The World Bank joins the E.U., Great Britain and other
international partners in expressing its deep concern with the fire at the home
of anti-corruption activist Vitaliy Shabunin and the threat to his family. We
call upon Ukrainian government bodies to ensure an unbiased and thorough
investigation so that anyone responsible is held to account.” More than two
dozen Western-sponsored NGOs in Ukraine called for the resignation of Internal
Affairs Minister Avakov, as well as parliamentary control over investigations
of various violent attacks against civil activists, including Kateryna
Handziuk, who died in November 2018 from an acid attack.

In his turn, President Zelensky said on July 23 the
attack “casts a shadow on the reputation of our country, on our new institutions
of government and particularly on our law enforcement bodies.” The home of
Shabunin’s parents was “cynically set on fire,” he said, which is “a clear sign
that our society still can’t wake up from the many tragedies and social
upheavals.” Ukrainian society “can’t refrain from uncivilized forms of
clarifying relations” and “can’t stop playing with demonstrative violence,”
Zelensky said.

Zenon Zawada: This is the
second arson attack committed against a high-profile figure in the last year.
Recall, the suburban home of former National Bank head Valeria Gontareva was destroyed in an arson
fire in September 2019. To us, it’s the latest evidence of the leadership
vacuum in the Zelensky administration, particularly in law enforcement. It’s
particularly troubling that Shabunin is among the leading critics of Avakov,
who is essentially the nation’s police chief, leading years-long campaign
demanding his removal for alleged corruption. As recently as late May, the
Anti-Corruption Centre published a report accusing Avakov of creating a secret
department at the ministry whose structure, membership and functions are not
disclosed to the public. But there is no evidence yet of police involvement in
this attack, and Shabunin has criticized many others for corruption.

While Zelensky implicated the ills of society as a
whole for this violence, and the damage done to Ukraine’s reputation, we
believe that it’s the Zelensky administration (including the Shmyhal cabinet)
that deserves the blame. While Zelensky is dependent on the West for its
support, he has shown that he and his team don’t have the political ability to
implement the policies and reforms that Western leaders are expecting from him
and the country. We expect such chaos in Ukraine – not only related to the war,
but all kinds of political violence – to continue under his presidency, since
he has shown he’s not capable of reining it in. This makes impossible Ukraine’s
membership in Euro-Atlantic structures for the duration of the Zelensky
presidency, though integration will move forward.