Ukrainian business is leaving. Not because of the war, but because of corruption. Unfortunately, this is a fact proven by surveys and analytical studies.
Why is there an outflow of talent, investment resources, and entrepreneurial activity and who is to blame for this?
I hear these questions all the time on broadcasts and meetings. First of all, this is because for many Ukrainians, corruption during the war became a kind of death sentence for the existing post-Soviet system and evidence of the partial defeat of the Maidan.
After all, corruption existed before, only now it is happening most cynically and brazenly against the backdrop of tens of thousands of dead and wounded at the front and throughout the country. This is something that, even for many Ukrainians who are accustomed to the arrogance and impunity of domestic corrupt officials, is beyond good and evil. The main thing is that many of us eventually realized that this is a road to nowhere. Not only for the country as a whole, but also for individual Ukrainians, their families and children.
But the main thing is that people want to hear the answer to the question: when will this all stop? Unfortunately, I must admit that it will not stop. We ourselves must stop this. If we do not take a subjective position - as a business, as a civil society, then corrupt officials will not give up on their own.
Why? Yes, if only because in our country corruption brings in about 500-600 billion UAH of “rent” per year. They earn more than all business income combined - they are stronger and, unlike us, they are not giving up their positions. They have clan solidarity, again, unlike us. They built vertical and horizontal connections.
And the situation, unfortunately, is getting worse. For example, the number of raider attacks has increased; more than 45% of entrepreneurs have been subject to pressure from regulatory or law enforcement agencies over the past two months. About 30% indicate that the pressure has increased compared to what it was. This is the picture.
We now have a very high risk that business could be critically “squeezed out” from Ukraine. We have already lost 12% of added value due to business migration and could lose more. We may get a stop to investment projects that exist in the country one way or another.
Who is to blame, or what to do?
The key question is: what to do about it? First of all, don't give up. For example, we founded Manifesto 42, an association of business associations. We have created the “Coalition of Ukrainian Business Communities for the Modernization of Ukraine”, and I have the honor to head the Council of this coalition.
We are now looking for ways to instrumentally build resistance to the power of such power structures. But, on the other hand, we also work systematically. Thus, we managed to defeat the unlucky one and promote the best bill to reboot the Bureau of Economic Security.
We are now working to reboot the Criminal Procedure Code and customs so that the supervisory and regulatory authorities cease to be pressure bodies. So that the presumption of innocence of business is introduced, so that economic crimes are decriminalized. So that only the economic jurisdiction has economic jurisdiction, which we must now reboot together.
The main thing that is needed is for the business itself, firstly, to start working according to the rules and start paying taxes. And secondly, when a business is asked for a bribe, at that moment it should contact NABU, or the “Coalition of Ukrainian Business Communities”, or “Manifesto 42”.
There are already trained people there who will help the business make sure that not only this taxman, but also all those who later go to defend him, will never end up in government agencies again. And so that they will definitely end up under investigation and behind bars for their illegal deeds. We must resist. There is no other way.
However, business is afraid. Business says in plain text: “OK, I can testify to the tax authorities there, but they have relatives in the prosecutor’s office, in the local SBU or in the State Bureau of Investigation. It’s possible that we’ll even jail the tax authorities, but then they’ll jail me too. They’ll attach me with connections with Russia, or something else on another line, or even come up with something altogether, and I’ll find myself under a different case.”
So we need to be careful. But together we will definitely get through this. We are currently working on this infrastructure to support such businesses.
Indeed, business is afraid to finance think tanks, media projects, and political parties. He’s afraid because he hopes that “well, we’ll somehow survive on the sly and get through all this.” But this survival, unfortunately, makes us very, very fragile and gives strength to those who preserve this corrupt and no longer even oligarchic, but simply a gangster system that is simply at war with business.
Of course, this is not an exhaustive description of the state. In the state and its institutions, there are actually many sane people with whom you can and should talk. These people are in the Office of the Prosecutor General, in NABU, in NAPC, in the Ministry of Economy, in the Ministry of Finance, in the office of the president.
We can only protect ourselves when we stop being afraid to have difficult conversations with them about corruption. Only then will the corrupt system have no power. We are not afraid of Putin, we are not afraid of nuclear weapons, then why are we afraid of home-grown thieves? They also need to be resisted. They are the same enemies of Ukraine as Putin’s soldiers.
Good examples are Yuri Zozulya and Alexander Sokolovsky. They are not afraid to go out and speak publicly about everything that this or that body does. If they can, others can too.
At the same time, in my opinion, punishing corrupt officials is a small part of the fight against corruption. Anti-corruption is, first of all, about building a different system. We are focused on having a new customs office, a new economic security system, a new criminal procedure code, a new prosecutor’s office, a new tax office, and we are working on it. And I think that in 2025 we will definitely achieve this.
“You can’t disperse after the Maidans”
Recently I met with the editor-in-chief of one of the most famous Ukrainian socio-political publications, and she told me, among hundreds of very cool phrases and meanings, one very important phrase: “Society does not understand that you cannot disperse after the Maidan, - after the Maidan you must not leave and to do what you did before, you have to become the power.”
Becoming a government means that business must finance think tanks, finance independent media, co-finance civic education, finance political parties, delegate its representatives to parliament, to political forces, delegate its leaders to manage the state system, train government managers, help professionalize the public service .
If we want real modernization of the country, we must invest in it. Moreover, invest an organizational resource, a financial resource, a semantic resource. And taking action should be one of our daily tasks. And until we do this, corrupt officials will be stronger. They, for example, have again accumulated financial resources.
And again we must jump over our heads to defeat corrupt officials in the elections. And, most likely, those whom we elect again in elections will also be corrupt, because the meanings there will remain unchanged. And the typology of power will remain unchanged if we do not take power into our own hands.
Actually, the title of my column on ZN.UA is exactly that: How civil society can take power in the country. We have a vision of what kind of country we want to build. We want to build a country of opportunity with a people-centric state, with responsible citizens and a safe environment. A country that will be a global entity. We also have a clear idea of how to do this. We've developed a lot of policies, but we don't have a critical mass of people who are willing to do it every day. Unfortunately, there are not enough resources, so our task for the near future is to accumulate resources and then delegate people.
Ukraine is pushing away Ukrainians who find themselves abroad
The next question that requires reflection: what should be the state policy towards Ukrainians who now live abroad?
In my opinion, the state is now pushing Ukrainians away. It continues to squeeze talent and entrepreneurs out of Ukraine. He is trying to scare those who are already outside Ukraine.
This is categorically unacceptable. Ukrainians will return when Ukraine is the best place to have children, to create ideas, to realize business aspirations, to invest. It is necessary not to intimidate Ukrainians around the world, but to work on the attractiveness of the environment.
In fact, the main problem of Ukraine is not security - the problem is futility, lack of clarity. When the biggest problem in a state during a war is the unpredictable actions of the state itself, which, for example, at any moment can worsen conditions for domestic business, this is nonsense. Because it is business that finances our defense with its taxes.
The state must create all the conditions for the normal existence of Ukrainians outside of Ukraine - make sure that Ukrainians realize their desire to help their country in the way they can, donating through donations, through partial payment of taxes in Ukraine, through the institution of dual residence, and the like.
Most of these people ended up abroad not because of a good life, but partly as a result of the short-sighted actions of the state itself. Understanding that the state cares about them, that the state remains human-centric, no matter where the Ukrainian is, greatly increases the chances of these people returning.
