Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced that he will launch a specialised anti-corruption court in the country next year, during a trip to the Kyiv region on October 20.

Poroshenko added that he will be ready to sign the law on the anticorruption court by the end of 2017 if the nation's parliament adopts it. "I emphasise that the schedule of creation of the new court, as I imagine and plan it, provides for the final approval and signature of the law on the anticorruption court by the end of the year. This is absolutely possible," Poroshenko's media office quoted him as saying.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) insists that an independent anti-corruption court should be set up as part of the lender's agreement with Ukraine. Earlier, Kyiv promised to secure the passage of legislation necessary for creating a new anti-corruption court by mid-June. The court should become operational by early 2018.

In July, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker told journalists that the European Union (EU) does not insist on the establishment of a separate anti-corruption court in Ukraine, and Brussels has agreed with authorities in Kyiv to establish a special anti-corruption chamber of the Ukrainian Supreme Court instead.

Juncker's statement immediately triggered bitter criticism among Ukrainian reformers. Specifically, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) said in a statement published on July 13 that there is no alternative to the court.