Kyiv confirms top economic watchdog in new reversal

The Ukrainian cabinet of ministers appointed a head of the Economic Security Bureau after weeks of stalling and mounting pressure from international partners.

An independent commission selected Oleksandr Tsyvinskyi, a veteran anti-corruption detective, on June 24. The cabinet of ministers was supposed to confirm him within 10 days, but repeatedly refused to do so. 

Already last week, newly appointed Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko signaled a course reversal on the confirmation following massive backlash to a July anti-corruption power-grab in Ukraine. The Ukrainian government officially confirmed Tsyvinskyi as head of the bureau Wednesday, a month after the official deadline passed.

“We look forward to the renewal of the Bureau’s work, the strengthening of the institution, and the achievement of a significant level of trust between the Bureau and Ukrainian entrepreneurs,” Svyrydenko wrote on social media. 

The EU’s ambassador to Ukraine, Katarina Mathernova, reacted positively, saying: “I welcome appointment of Oleksandr Tsyvinskyy as Director of ESBU — a key reform for [EU] accession and IMF benchmark.”

The bureau investigates economic crimes and is especially important during wartime, Tsyvinskyi previously told POLITICO, when it must monitor Western aid and safeguard scarce public funds by cracking down on economic crime.

The government previously cited Tsyvinskyi’s father’s Russian citizenship as grounds for refusing his appointment, even though he previously acquired Ukrainian security clearance and has not spoken to his father in years. 

Svyrydenko said last week that Tsyvinskyi would undergo polygraph testing before his appointment. Anti-corruption activists denounced the move as legally baseless and a face‑saving gesture after weeks of unjustified government stalling.

In late July, Kyiv stripped the country’s anti-corruption agencies of their independence, triggering the first wartime anti-government protests at home along with a wave of public condemnation from partners abroad.

The government was later forced to reverse course.

Since then, the European Commission and other international partners have publicly urged Ukraine to complete its reform commitments, including appointing the bureau head, in public rebukes.

Besides appointing Tsyvinskyi, Kyiv has accelerated other long-stalled reforms demanded since then. 

On Monday, Svyrydenko announced that the government launched a selection process for a new head of the customs service, which Ukraine also promised to the EU and was required by law to do by the beginning of 2025.