By James Bradley
At the end of 2024, Interpol and the Austrian Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that they had no claims against the former head of the Ukrainian Central Bank, Kyrylo Shevchenko, regarding the main accusations put forward by the Ukrainian authorities. However, his persecution in Ukraine continues.
Shevchenko, the former Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), played a crucial role in preventing the collapse of the banking system in the first months of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. However, by mid-2022, he was forced to resign and leave the country due to intense political persecution by President Zelensky and his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak. Shevchenko currently resides in Austria. While the world sees him as an outstanding financial leader whose unique experience is worth studying, in his home country, he remains the target of persecution based on long-standing and unproven accusations.
Recently, Shevchenko’s lawyers obtained a ruling from Interpol’s General Commission, confirming that the agency has no measures or restrictions against the former NBU head: neither a Red Notice nor a Diffusion Notice—Interpol’s mechanisms for locating, arresting, detaining, or extraditing individuals. According to Shevchenko’s lawyers, Interpol’s refusal to apply any of its procedures against him proves beyond doubt that the charges are entirely baseless and politically motivated.
Additionally, Austria’s Central Prosecutor’s Office for Economic Crimes and Corruption has ruled to close the case on some of the charges against Shevchenko, having found no evidence of money laundering.
Thus, despite all the efforts of Ukrainian authorities to portray Shevchenko as a corrupt official and criminal, these attempts are falling apart before our eyes. International justice has no claims against him.
However, the situation in Ukrainian courts is different. In February, the High Anti-Corruption Court will begin hearings on a nearly six-year-old case concerning the alleged embezzlement of funds from Ukrgasbank. Given that, despite all the declared reforms, Ukrainian courts remain a flexible (in the worst sense) tool of the authorities, the outcome is fairly predictable.
Even within Ukrainian elites, many believe that the case against Shevchenko is nothing more than political revenge—but few dare to say so openly.
Political Persecution
In 2022, the global financial community was surprised at least twice.
The first time was when Ukraine’s banking system withstood the shock and did not collapse—not on the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion, nor in the first week, nor in the first months. Even today, it remains the only example in the world of a fully functional banking system under wartime conditions.
The second time was when, under unclear circumstances, the author of this miracle—Kyrylo Shevchenko, who served as Governor of Ukraine’s Central Bank from 2020 to 2022—was forced to resign.
Shevchenko took over as NBU Governor during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and left his post amid Russia’s war against Ukraine in 2022. Under his leadership, the banking system survived the Russian invasion, but he also resisted political influence over the NBU, which increasingly angered Zelensky and Yermak.
Among the key conflicts between the President and the NBU Governor was Shevchenko’s firm public stance on halting money issuance (hryvnia emission). While money printing was a necessary emergency measure at the start of the full-scale war, Shevchenko insisted on stopping it as soon as the situation stabilized. This significantly limited funding for some of President Zelensky’s largest corruption-prone projects, especially in construction and defense—including the infamous “Great Construction” program (widely known in Ukraine as “Great Theft”), which Shevchenko had curbed even before the war began.
Despite direct political pressure from the President, Shevchenko refused to print more money, warning that it would lead to rising inflation and the devaluation of the national currency. Additionally, Zelensky was frustrated by Shevchenko’s unwillingness to appoint politically loyal officials to key positions in the banking system. Shevchenko resisted efforts to install Office of the President loyalists in crucial regulatory and state banking roles, insisting on preserving the NBU’s independence.
Later, Shevchenko would sum it up succinctly:
“I was not a convenient Governor for the National Bank.”
The conflict escalated.
Realizing that direct pressure was ineffective, and that Shevchenko was emerging as a strong political opponent with sensitive information about the Presidential Office, the government revived an old, nearly closed case against him.
When it became clear that this hopeless case was being weaponized against him, Shevchenko resigned in early October 2022. The very next day, he was formally charged and placed under arrest without bail.
Later, the charges were escalated. Initially, the case was about “embezzlement” involving officials from Ukrgasbank. However, despite no signatures or evidence linking Shevchenko to the alleged crimes, the authorities reclassified the charges as “leading a criminal organization”, essentially branding him as a “kingpin”. This mirrored Putin’s tactics in eliminating political opponents.
Ukrainian-Style Justice
Many in Ukraine suspect that once Shevchenko was recognized globally for saving Ukraine’s banking system, his removal was only a matter of time.
It’s no secret that a strong, independent central bank governor automatically becomes a political figure—not the type of person that Zelensky or Yermak want by their side.
The big question now is whether Ukrainian courts will become an instrument of political repression. Will they follow the path of notorious judge Rodion Kireyev, whose unlawful rulings against a major political leader ultimately ruined his own career? Or will they stand as an independent branch of power—or has the Zelensky-Yermak regime already erased that option, steadily pushing Ukraine toward authoritarianism?