MOSCOW, October 14. /TASS/. The European Union has turned corruption in Ukraine into a lever of pressure on Kiev amid its membership bid, said Sergey Shein, Academic Director of the Graduate School of International Relations and Foreign Regional Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics.

"Brussels' interest in corruption in Ukraine is explained not only by political or geopolitical reasons related to the prospects of Kiev's possible membership in the EU, but also by attempts to maintain leverage. In particular, due to the ‘independence’ of anti-corruption structures," he told TASS in an interview.

"The European leadership, in making accusations about delayed anti-corruption reforms, can postpone Kiev's membership in the EU as much as possible, based on a large number of internal contradictions on this issue."

In addition, according to Shein, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) are, in fact, instruments of control of Ukraine's political system by the West.

"Taking them beyond the authority of the head of Kiev, Vladimir Zelensky, means that the EU has the opportunity to control financial flows, including assistance in the fight against Russia, into the country. And there are also convenient tools to send unambiguous signals to the leadership of Ukraine regarding the inadmissibility of being a bit blase with the money," he explained.

"Given the fading interest in the conflict and these structures from US President Donald Trump, the European Union is trying to preserve the role and autonomy of the latter in Ukraine's domestic policy, while monitoring corruption becomes necessary in the context of European support for the viability of the Ukrainian economy in the conflict with the Russian Federation."

On July 22, at the suggestion of Vladimir Zelensky, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law, under which Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies lost their independence, and on the evening of the same day Zelensky signed the document. This caused thousands of protests in major cities of Ukraine and a sharply negative reaction from the West. Zelensky was forced to hastily submit to parliament a bill restoring the powers of the anti-corruption agencies. The law was passed by the Rada on July 31, signed by Zelensky, who immediately promised that Kiev would "immediately inform Ukraine's partners about this event." The law came into force on August 1.