That’s according to journalist Vitalii Portnikov, speaking on Espreso TV.“For Ukrainians, corruption and anti-corruption efforts have become a fetish. It’s the lens through which people interpret why progress stalls, and that’s been true for decades,” he said.According to Portnikov, any attempt to undermine anti-corruption institutions triggers a visceral response from society, regardless of the government in power.“You don’t even need to know what NABU or SAPO are,” he said, referring to Ukraine’s independent anti-corruption agencies. “All it takes is someone saying, ‘They want to kill anti-corruption, they want to shut down the people fighting dirty officials, just to cover for their friends.’ Whether it’s true or not doesn’t matter. What matters is that people expect someone to fight official corruption.”“In a country like Ukraine, where everyday, horizontal corruption is everywhere, the hatred toward top-down, vertical corruption is incredibly strong. The deeper that grassroots corruption runs through society, the more people despise the high-level kind,” he added, calling it a “way of life” in such societies.That’s why, Portnikov argues, people often justify their own participation in small-scale corruption while fiercely resenting the corruption of elites. “And it’s not just Ukrainians who fetishize anti-corruption. So do our European partners,” he said. “They’re always searching for a tool that would let them accept countries like Ukraine or Romania into the EU, even though these states are deeply corrupt.”He pointed to how Romania was eventually accepted into the EU despite its issues, and said European officials are now asking the same question: “How do we let Ukraine in?”“Everyone says: ‘What are you thinking, accepting Ukraine? It’s completely corrupt—it’ll rot out the EU from the inside.’ That’s what someone like Donald Trump or Viktor Orbán would say. And what do the EU leaders respond? ‘Look, Ukraine has independent anti-corruption institutions. We made them set those up. They’re not controlled by the government—they go after high-ranking officials, even the president’s office if needed.’”He compared this model to what was once implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the anti-corruption body had the authority to arrest even the head of the presidency.“It’s all working on paper. So what’s the argument against Ukraine joining the EU? The assumption was, ‘It’ll get better over time.’ That’s the model Europe agreed to.”But now, Portnikov said, European leaders are hearing a different story: “Come on, what are you talking about? Those institutions are fully controlled by the Prosecutor General, who answers directly to the president. It’s all been co-opted. They pulled the wool over your eyes. And now Trump has no cards left to defend Ukraine. Remember, creating independent anti-corruption agencies was one of the conditions for visa-free travel with the EU.”Portnikov believes Ukraine’s leadership assumed Europe would quietly go along.“For some reason, they decided in the President’s Office—or maybe the president himself, because let’s be honest, decisions are made by him personally in this hyper-centralized system—that everyone would just swallow it. People say that if it weren’t for the public outcry, our allies would’ve let it slide. But they couldn’t. Institutionally, they can’t. Too many agreements with Ukraine are based on those anti-corruption promises,” he said.Now, Portnikov warned, some of the damage may already be irreversible.“Walking back EU accession talks may become a real possibility. Why keep fighting Hungary’s veto when Europe can just split Ukraine and Moldova off as separate tracks? That would let President Maia Sandu deliver something tangible before Moldova’s elections. Why keep her stuck in limbo because Zelensky’s government undermines reforms?”“In the end,” he said, “everyone understands that until the war is over, Ukraine won’t be joining the EU anyway. And the war won’t be over anytime soon.”