High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine

High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine (Вищий антиикорупційний суд України; Vyshchyi antykoruptsiinyi sud Ukrainy: ВАКС or VAKS). A court within Ukraine’s court system, which deals exclusively with high-level corruption. It was established due to deficiencies in the regular judicial system’s handling of such cases and it began its work in 2019. Previously, cases of political corruption uncovered by National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) were sent for adjudication in the regular courts for prosecution by the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP). Because the regular courts were overloaded, or their judges may have been corrupted or intimidated, there were few convictions which then reflected badly on Ukrainian authorities’ efforts to curb political corruption. The initiative to create a separate court was supported externally by the European Union and internally by Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). It was resisted by members of the Ukrainian political establishment, many of whom were implicated in political corruption.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko presented a draft bill on the new court to the Supreme Council of Ukraine on 22 December 2017. It was in competition with two other versions drafted by the parliamentarians themselves, as well as with guidelines provided by the Venice Commission. The legislation, a compromise between advocates and opponents of anti-corruption, was finally passed by the Supreme Council and signed into law by the president in June 2018, whereupon Poroshenko also signed the enabling legislation. Although further changes were demanded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ukraine managed to receive a 17.5 billion USD loan. The court began work in earnest in April 2019.

Positive achievements in the country’s fight against political corruption followed and were evident within five years of the court’s establishment. Judges of ordinary courts, parliamentarians, and at least one former minister were charged and convicted. In number and rates of convictions, the VAKS far surpassed previous levels: 186 in 2019–24, as compared to 33 in 2016–19; with a conviction rate of 89 percent. There were 80 plea bargains in which guilty pleas were exchanged for lighter sentences and cooperation in exposing wider networks of criminality. One such case was that of Oleh Horetsky who had facilitated a bribe of 2.7 million USD to the Supreme Court of Ukraine chief justice. His plea deal was five years’ probation in return for substantial (50 million hryvni or 1.3 million USD) funds for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The court was also empowered to confiscate without the requirement of a criminal conviction assets acquired by illicit means and had done so yielding to the treasury in excess of 15 billion hryvni (416 million USD) by 2024. Establishing the court marked a significant advance in terms of judicial reform and action on political corruption in Ukraine.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Reznik, O.; Bondarenko, O.; Utkina, M.; Klypa, O.; Bobrishova, L. ‘Anti-Corruption Transformation Processes in the Conditions of Judicial Reform in Ukraine Implementation,’ International Journal for Court Administration 14, no 1 (2023)
Farbar, K., ‘How Ukraine is Fighting High-Level Corruption Despite Russia’s War,’ ODR: Explainer (4 July 2023)
Kotukov, O.; Kotukova, T.; Kozlov, K.; Makarenko, O.; Odyntsova, O. ‘The Effectiveness of the National Anti-Corruption Policy of Ukraine,’ Amazonia Investiga 12, no 66 (June 2023)
Ben, B., ‘Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Court is Breaking the Cycle of Impunity,’ Euromaidan Press (3 October 2024)
‘Can the High Anti-Corruption Court Fix Ukraine’s Corruption Problem? Q&A with REECA Grad Ivanna Kuz,’ Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (2025)

Bohdan Harasymiw
[This article was written in 2025.]