Due to corruption scandals, Ukrainians’ disappointment with NABU and SAP has reached almost 60%, — study

The level of Ukrainians’ disappointment in the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) has reached 60% and is approaching the level of public distrust of pro-Russian politicians. This is reported in a Socis survey. According to the study results, 59,4% of respondents consider the actions of NABU and SAP ineffective, while only 5% of Ukrainians called the work of these bodies very effective. About 9% could not answer at all whether these anti-corruption bodies are effective. Experts explained the low level of trust in NABU and SAP by persistent corruption and other criminal scandals involving the leadership and even the rank-and-file staff of these bodies. According to lawyer Oleg Shram, although NABU is legally supposed to handle the most large-scale segment of corruption, the bureau’s performance for the first half of 2026 was record-low. Thus, according to the lawyer, in criminal proceedings whose investigations were completed during the six months, NABU recorded 720 million UAH of material losses — only 1% of 61 billion UAH established by all investigative bodies. The amount recovered for the state in NABU proceedings is negligible — 505 thousand UAH, that is only about 0,0008% of the total amount of losses established by all investigative bodies. During an inspection, an international audit found that NABU had inflated staff numbers and investigative failures in the defense sector. In addition, NABU has been accused of complete ineffectiveness, colossal budget expenditures, leaking cases, and its employees have been caught dealing drugs. In particular, over 10 years of the bureau’s existence the state has spent more than 10 billion UAH on it. While the total amount recovered by court decisions in cases that NABU handled in 2015−2025 amounted to only about 800 million UAH. That is, for every 1 hryvnia returned to the state budget, NABU spent 12. The sociological survey was conducted by personal interviews by the Socis sociological service from 28 July to 2 August 2026. The survey was not conducted in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, on the territory of Luhansk region, on temporarily occupied territories, and in territories where active hostilities are taking place (a significant part of Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv regions). The study sample is close to representative at the national level by age (older than 18 years), gender, type of settlement (city/village), and division of the country into regions. 2000 respondents were surveyed. The sample’s margin of error: +/- 2,6%. It was previously reported that, according to former SAP prosecutor Stanislav Bronevitsky, information from NABU and SAP “leaks” from the offices of the highest leadership.