Just one year ago, reporting on a corruption scandal in Ukraine could start with a few mouse clicks. A seasoned investigative journalist like Yuriy Nikolov – co-founder of non-governmental organisation Nashi Groshi (“Our Money”) – would access ProZorro, an online database of public procurement deals, where he could quickly examine government contracts for inconsistencies.

But since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February, the Ukrainian government has pared down ProZorro to protect national security interests, and Nikolov has had to report the old-school way: by obtaining copies of government contracts from trusted sources. That is how he recently unearthed the largest corruption scandal in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, tied to a $US355 million ($525 million) contract the defence ministry signed to buy food for troops in six regions at two to three times the market rate.

Foreign Policy