Maxim Gryshchuk, the first deputy head of the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, doesn’t play to type.
While most prosecutors are distrusted by society due to the pervasive corruption in their line of work, Gryshchuk has won public praise as a soldier defending the nation in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Civil activists hope that Gryshchuk represents a new generation of Ukrainian law enforcers – one motivated by principles and patriotism, rather than greed.
During an interview with the Kyiv Post, he described various obstacles for the anti-corruption prosecutors’ work, ranging from low wages to difficulties with wiretapping suspects.
War memories
He also spoke at length about his war memories – a topic that is clearly close to his heart.
Speaking in an informal, friendly manner in the brand new and well-lit premises of the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office in Kyiv, Gryshchuk has exchanged a soldier’s worn-out camouflage for a neat prosecutor’s suit. His clean-shaven face also contrasts with the bearded one that appears in his photos from the war zone.
Gryshchuk was one of two candidates nominated last November by a special commission for the job of the chief anti-corruption prosecutor. Though Gryshchuk got more votes than the other candidate, his current boss Nazar Kholodnytsky, Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin chose Kholodnytsky for the job.
But in December Shokin gave a nod to Gryshchuk’s achievements by appointing him Kholodnytsky’s first deputy.
The anti-corruption prosecutor’s office works in tandem with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. These graft-fighting bodies were created last year and target corrupt top officials.
Gryshchuk has high hopes for his agency.
“We seek to create a critical mass of young and ambitious people who have fire in their eyes and want to work,” he said.
He said that the anti-corruption prosecutors’ work had been initially thwarted by the delay in wage increases for them, but that this issue has been resolved.
The monthly wages of rank-and-file anti-corruption prosecutors were eventually increased to about Hr 50,000 ($1,850).
‘Swamped’
Another attempt to derail the work of the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office took place when the Prosecutor General’s Office announced that it intended to transfer about 6,000 old corruption cases to the anti-corruption prosecutors. Gryshchuk added that his office still has disagreements with the Prosecutor General’s Office over the categories of cases they should take.
“Given our (small) number of people, we would have been swamped,” he said.
The anti-corruption prosecutor’s office has already hired 12 rank-and-file prosecutors, but this number is expected to rise to 42.
If the Prosecutor General’s Office had succeeded in sending those cases to anti-corruption prosecutors, he and his colleagues could have become scapegoats, as some cases might already be hopeless, and not possible to send to court, Gryshchuk said.
Cases ‘have to be fast’
“If a case is under investigation for over a year, then its prospects are very dubious,” he said. “Criminal cases have to be fast – you open it and then send it to court. Otherwise delays and backdoor scheming begin.”
“The longer you investigate, the more difficult it is to send it to court.”
Eyewitnesses may change or forget their testimony or even die, while some of them may go abroad, and evidence can be destroyed, Gryshchuk said.
Another problem for anti-corruption prosecutors is that they cannot wiretap suspects without the Security Service of Ukraine’s assistance. The anti-corruption prosecutor’s office does not have wiretapping equipment, although it would like some, Gryshchuk said.
Moreover, information obtained as a result of wiretapping is already being leaked and sold, he added.
Hamstrung by law
Anti-corruption prosecutors are also restricted by the law under which they have to get not only court permission, but also Verkhovna Rada approval to wiretap lawmakers, Gryshchuk said. That makes such wiretapping meaningless, as the suspects know about it beforehand, he added.
One more obstacle is that some investigators at the National Anti-Corruption Bureau lack prosecutorial experience, and it will take two or three years to train them, Gryshchuk said.
He admitted, however, that some prosecutors also have “negative experience,” implying they are well versed in corruption and political meddling.
Investigators of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau are not required to have prosecutorial experience, while anti-corruption prosecutors were obliged to have five years of prosecutorial experience until the Verkhovna Rada removed that requirement on Feb. 18.
First case to court
Commenting on his office’s achievements, Gryshchuk said that it had already submitted its first case to court, though he did not specify what case.
He added that anti-corruption prosecutors were planning to submit at least five to six cases this month, and a similar number next month.
Gryshchuk started working as a prosecutor in 2008 in the city of Chernovohrad in Lviv Oblast. From 2012 to 2015, he was a rank-and-file prosecutor in the city of Lviv.
Volunteered for war
As soon as Russia invaded Crimea in February 2014, Gryshchuk enlisted for service in the military.
“I went there when the first ‘green men’ appeared in Crimea and when its parliament was seized,” he said in a reference to the Russian troops without insignia who invaded the peninsula. “I was brought up to respect patriotic traditions, and Crimea is our land.”
However, the military did not call Gryshchuk up for a long time, which prompted him to go back to a military enlistment office again in June 2014 and ask them “what the hell is going on?”
He finally got a draft notice in August 2014, and was sent to a training center.
Donetsk ‘cyborg’
In December Gryshchuk was sent to the village of Pisky near Donetsk, where he specialized in cartography and directing artillery fire. He got the nom-de-guerre “Prosecutor.”
“We were listening on the radio to fighters with Russian accents,” he said. “They were directing artillery fire in a very professional way, and they certainly weren’t local miners.”
Gryshchuk said that he had been at Donetsk Airport from Jan. 7 to Jan. 23, 2015 and had become one of the “cyborgs” – a popular moniker reflecting the resilience and courage of the airport’s defenders.
“They told me ‘buddy, you’re great at directing fire, and there’s no one to replace you with’,” he added.
Despite having the rank of private, he had to command more senior fighters at Donetsk Airport because he had been there the longest.
One especially difficult day at the airport was Jan. 17, when Ukrainian troops tried to storm positions controlled by Russian-separatist forces.
“Our crews sent me injured fighters,” he said. “I brought them to the four rooms that had not been destroyed yet. Blood was everywhere, everyone was shouting. I didn’t know where to send them, and we had no medics.”
Fortunately they eventually found a medic from the Right Sector nationalist group, Gryshchuk said
