A coalition of Ukrainian civil society organizations led by the Laboratory of Legislative Initiatives (LLI) stated in its report to the European Commission that the actions of State Financial Monitoring Service head Filip Pronin, whose letter served as the basis for sanctions against Ukraine’s fifth president, Petro Poroshenko, may have been politically motivated.
Source: OBOZREVATEL
The document emphasizes that while the law on combating money laundering formally guarantees the political independence of the Financial Monitoring Service, it lacks effective mechanisms to protect it from political influence. According to the authors, this makes the agency’s independence “declarative.”
“Particularly serious concerns arise from the practice of using the SFMS as an instrument for imposing sanctions,” the report states.
Referring to journalist Iryna Vedernykova’s publication in Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, the authors note that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) did not support the sanctions against Poroshenko, and the initiative came directly from the Cabinet of Ministers based on Pronin’s materials. The documents submitted to the National Security and Defense Council were signed by Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, while Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal distanced himself from the process.
The report also claims that Pronin was collecting information for the sanctions even before his official appointment as head of the Financial Monitoring Service on December 31, 2024.
“Head of Financial Monitoring Pronin and Deputy Prime Minister Svyrydenko effectively became instruments in the hands of the president’s inner circle,” the report quotes from the journalistic investigation.
Additionally, experts recall that on February 19, 2025, draft law No. 13029 was registered in the Verkhovna Rada, proposing to reform the procedure for selecting the head of the SFMS through an open competition, limit the term of office to five years, and introduce an independent audit of the agency’s performance.
The LLI report also covers an assessment of Ukraine’s progress and challenges in the areas of rule of law, anti-corruption efforts, human rights protection, judicial and prosecutorial systems, visa policy, and migration — within Chapters 23 and 24 of the negotiation process on Ukraine’s accession to the EU.
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