Anti-Corruption Action Center believes that President Zelenskyy is building a corrupt authoritarian regime under martial law, and the case against Vitaliy Shabunin is nothing but a show trial meant to demonstrate that the authorities can do whatever they want to anyone in the country – no matter how absurd it may seem.
The President’s Office, using the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) controlled by Oleh Tatarov and anonymous Telegram channels, is trying to portray Vitaliy Shabunin as a “draft dodger” and a “fraudster.”
Here is why the suspicion issued by the SBI is entirely unfounded:
1. Alleged Draft Evasion
Vitaliy voluntarily joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine on February 25, 2022. He took part in the defense of Kyiv, and after the Russians retreated in the spring, he served in a Territorial Defense unit based in the Kyiv region. He also served in Donetsk and Kyiv. In recent months, he has been stationed in the Kharkiv region.
At all times, Vitaliy was located with the unit to which he was officially assigned, in accordance with military orders from his command.
The SBI’s accusations concern a period between September 2022 and February 2023, when his Territorial Defense unit was stationed in Sukholuchchya (Kyiv region), and Vitaliy was officially seconded to the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP).
These accusations are absurd, as Vitaliy was sent to the NACP by official order, which, as a soldier, he was obligated to follow. Disobeying an order would have been a direct violation of the law.
At that time, his unit was stationed in Sukholuchchya, so the SBI’s claim that he could have been “evading frontline duty” is baseless. After completing the secondment at the NACP, Vitaliy rejoined his unit and went on to serve in Donetsk.
While working at the NACP, Vitaliy promoted anti-corruption reforms, including in the defense sector.
He worked on restoring electronic asset declarations and planning measures to reduce corruption in defense procurement—reforms that were later adopted after the scandal over “eggs at 17 UAH each.”
2. Alleged Fraud
2.1 “Illegal Combat Pay.” According to the SBI, Vitaliy committed fraud by receiving military pay while being seconded to the NACP, supposedly obtaining the money through deception.
Since Vitaliy was officially seconded to the NACP under military orders, there are no grounds to claim that he unlawfully received funds. This was his legal salary as a soldier.
He received the standard military compensation: 20,000 UAH base salary and an additional 30,000 UAH allowance (not “combat pay”), which at that time was provided to all service members regardless of their location.
Vitaliy never received any combat pay. The total amount the SBI claims he “fraudulently obtained,” causing “financial damage to the state budget via the military unit,” is 224 249,49 UAH. Of this, 183 811,06 UAH was his military salary, and 40 438,43 UAH was the unified social tax (Ust).
How a military unit’s payment of this tax to the state budget could be considered a “loss” to that same budget remains an absurd mystery.
2.2 “Illegal Use of a Volunteer Vehicle.” The official suspicion does not mention any alleged unlawful use of a 2005 vehicle provided to Vitaliy by a charitable foundation for his use as a service member.
However, the SBI manipulatively refers to this in its official press release. Both Vitaliy and the donors who financed the vehicle—registered in Shabunin’s name as a private individual—have previously explained the legality of this action.
It is a common and legal practice in the Armed Forces for charitable foundations to donate vehicles directly to individual service members rather than to military units.
More details available here.
