Honcharuk, his Cabinet investigated over alleged negligence during COVID-19 outbreak

The Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office in Ukraine on March 23 opened a criminal investigation into alleged negligence by former Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk and his Cabinet for failing to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus in Ukraine.

Honcharuk’s government, which was fired on March 4, is suspected of ignoring the recommendation of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) to impose a ban on exports of medical face masks. 

According to the anti-corruption prosecution, starting on Jan. 31 Oleksiy Danilov, NSDC’s secretary, sent two letters to Honcharuk with suggestions to ban businesses from exporting and re-exporting goods that fit into the category of “anti-epidemic” products like face masks. It was understood that these items could be needed in Ukraine to fight the novel coronavirus that was already spreading in China. 

Honcharuk has not yet commented on the accusations. In a statement, Honcharuk denied any wrongdoing. 

“On the day of receiving the letter, I immediately called on a meeting and issued a special assignment to the Ministry of Health,” Honcharuk said. He added that he commissioned a number of Ministers to address the coronavirus threat the same day. 

Three days after, he said, the government approved the national plan of anti-epidemiological measures to prevent the spread of covid-19. 

“In this plan, I also asked to examine the possibility of launching a temporary ban on export in case we see a threat of a shortage of such goods in Ukraine,” Honcharuk said referring to medical masks.

However, the export of masks wasn’t stopped until mid-March. That is when the ban was planned to be imposed in accordance with one of the government’s scenarios, Honcharuk stressed.

The Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office launched its investigation after a popular news website, Censor.net, published Danilov’s letter on March 23. Its declaration on the opening of the case, published later the same day, cites the Censor.net report as the reason for starting the investigation.

Prosecutors demonstrated unprecedented speed: They opened a criminal investigation into Honcharuk’s alleged negligence just 54 minutes after the report containing Danilov’s letter was published online.

However, they deny that this was unusual.

“This is a normal speed adequate for the situation which we have today,” Olga Postoliuk, the anti-corruption prosecution’s press secretary, told the Kyiv Post.

“We were routinely monitoring news, we saw component elements of a crime and we registered this case in the registry of pre-trial investigations,” Postoliuk said. Finding evidence of possible wrongdoing in news coverage is common, she added. 

If the court finds officials of Honcharuk’s government guilty, those responsible for wrongdoing could be jailed for up to five years. 

The ban on exporting masks was finally imposed on March 11 by the newly-appointed government led by Prime Minister Denys Shmygal. Two days later, on March 13, Ukraine had its first death from coronavirus.

There is no vaccine to cure coronavirus. Face masks, antiseptics and gloves are seen as essential items for protecting the population from the virus. 

Despite knowing that coronavirus had already hit the country – the first case was recorded on March 2 – businesses continued selling face masks abroad. At the same time, Ukrainian pharmacies did not have them in stock. 

This quickly led to a shortage of masks, with online vendors offering them at exorbitant prices. 

Meanwhile, masks were being sold to other countries.

On March 21, a delivery of Ukrainian masks arrived in Spain. That cargo, however, was sent before the ban, on March 2 and 6, according to Maksym Nefyodov, head of the State Customs Service. 

Nefyodov acknowledged on March 21 that face mask export rates increased in January in comparison to the same period of 2019. 

On March 20, Ukraine sent a military plane to China to pick up donations of medical products for the country, including medical masks.

Once the virus began spreading across the globe, China — the country where the disease emerged in late 2019 — began sending doctors and masks overseas.

On March 23, the Ukrainian military plane loaded with face masks, lung ventilators and 250,000 rapid tests for coronavirus landed in Kyiv. 

In Ukraine, attempts to illegally sell facemasks abroad are ongoing, according to Nefyodov. The Customs Service arrested cargo with 260,000 masked after the ban had been imposed, he said.