Ukraine's parliament passes prosecution reform bill at first reading — anti-corruption experts call it an imitation
Ukraine's parliament on 11 November passed the first reading of Bill No. 16144, which would restore competitive selection for most senior prosecution posts — a reform the European Union requires in Ukraine's accession talks. Anti-corruption experts condemned the bill because the selection panels and a new Ethics Standards Council would be dominated by prosecutors themselves, with no independent or international experts and no contest at all for prosecutor general. The bill follows the Operation Carthage scandal, in which anti-corruption investigators accused senior security and prosecution officials of shielding a criminal network. It still needs a second reading and the president's signature to become law.
Key points
- Parliament passed the first reading of Bill No. 16144 on 11 November, restoring competitive selection for most senior prosecution posts — an EU accession requirement.
- The selection panels and a new Ethics Standards Council would be dominated by prosecutors, with no independent or international experts and no contest for prosecutor general.
- Anti-corruption experts call the bill an imitation that entrenches compromised prosecutors; it follows the Operation Carthage scandal that felled the prosecutor general.
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- The bill still needs a second reading and the president's signature to become law.
What happened
Ukraine's prosecution service has long been criticised at home and in Brussels as corrupt and politicised, and reforming it is one of the conditions attached to Ukraine's EU accession talks and continued financial support. A 2025 law removed competitive selection and prosecutors' procedural independence; the clause stripping the anti-corruption agencies' independence was later annulled after protests, but the prosecution changes stayed in force.
The immediate trigger is Operation Carthage: anti-corruption investigators say a criminal network running scam call centres, drug trafficking and counterfeiting bought protection from senior officials in the Security Service, the police and the Prosecutor General's Office. Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko was ousted and left the country in September as the case broke.
Both sides, in their own words
Both sides heard. Neither believed for free. Publishing a side's version is not endorsing it — the claim checks below are where verdicts live.
Side A · Parliament's majority and the bill's drafters
- The bill restores competitive selection for almost all senior prosecution posts, from district offices to department directors in the Prosecutor General's Office, ending appointment without a contest.
- Competitive selection is an EU requirement in Ukraine's accession talks, and the bill forms part of the prosecution-reform commitments Ukraine has set out to the Council of Europe.
Side B · Anti-corruption experts and activists
- The selection panels will be created by the Council of Prosecutors and dominated by prosecutors, and a majority of the new Ethics Standards Council will also be prosecutors — with no independent or international experts anywhere in the process.
- The bill contains no procedure for removing corrupt or compromised prosecutors and no contest for prosecutor general, so it entrenches the existing leadership instead of cleaning up the service.
Independently verified
5 claims independently verified — listed in the claim-by-claim check below.Not yet verified
Nothing outstanding.What we know / what we don't know yet
What we know
- That the first reading passed on 11 November and the bill restores contests for all senior prosecution posts except prosecutor general.
- That the panels and the Ethics Standards Council would be prosecutor-majorities with no international experts, on the bill's text as reported.
What we don't know yet
- Whether amendments before the second reading add independent or international experts — the point on which the bill's critics and the EU's demands turn.
- When the second reading will be held, and whether the president will sign the bill in its current form — his office had not commented in the reporting read.
Claim by claim
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Why this label: The Kyiv Independent's report of the vote, read in full; the bill's number, content and European-integration framing are confirmed in Ukraine's own action-plan communication to the Council of Europe and in Ukrainska Pravda's reporting of the bill.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: The bill's provisions as reported by the Kyiv Independent and in Ukrainska Pravda's account of the bill's mechanism; no independent or international experts take part under the text.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: Shabunin's own words, posted on Facebook and quoted by the Kyiv Independent — his position is verified as his statement; whether the bill will work as he predicts is a judgement, carried here as his side of the argument.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: The investigation and Kravchenko's fall are reported by the Kyiv Independent; the bribery account is the anti-corruption bureau's allegation, carried as investigators' case, not as a court finding.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: Reported by the Kyiv Independent; the EU's demand for a merit-based, depoliticised selection of the prosecutor general is a matter of public record in the accession process.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why it matters
Who chooses Ukraine's prosecutors decides whether cases like Operation Carthage are investigated or buried. Brussels has made a merit-based, depoliticised prosecution service a condition of membership, so this bill is a test of whether Kyiv's reforms change who holds power inside the service — or only rename the process that keeps them there.
Update history
No silent edits. Every change is written here, with its time.
- Latest
Published — the first reading is confirmed; the bill's final shape will be settled at its second reading.