At the IV Legal Forum Eastern Partnership 2025, held in Warsaw, Ukraine was represented in the second panel discussion by Anna Makarenko, Head of the Department for Identification, Search, and Recovery of Assets in Foreign Jurisdictions of the National Agency for Asset Tracing and Management.

The discussion also included specialized prosecutors from the Crown Prosecution Service of Great Britain, the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau of Poland, and the National Police of Ukraine.

During her speech, Anna Makarenko focused on key aspects of improving the effectiveness of international asset tracing. These include:

Only 1% of criminal assets in the world are recovered — this statistic underscores the complexity of the tasks facing anti-corruption institutions. That is why it is important to use modern tools, in particular the new EU Directive 2024/1260, which defines common approaches and standards for improving the effectiveness of asset tracing.

ARMA acts as an independent hub for collecting information about assets, has access to 51 state registers (43 of which are automated) and works with over 300 data sources, including public and private, Ukrainian and foreign, open and closed.

Ukraine has demonstrated leadership in the international CARIN network: according to the CARIN report for 2024, our country submitted the largest number of international requests for asset tracing among 61 jurisdictions and was among the top three in terms of the number of requests received.

ARMA is actively working to remove legal and organizational barriers that prevent the recovery of assets from abroad. In particular, amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine have been initiated that will allow ARMA to directly send requests for international legal assistance to speed up the process of recovering assets.

ARMA is working on concluding bilateral agreements with the competent authorities of foreign states, which will lay the foundation for the recovery and distribution of confiscated assets in the future.

Anna Makarenko also emphasized the importance of creating a centralized register of bank accounts in Ukraine, access to which for ARMA will be one of the key steps in improving the agency's efficiency in accordance with European legislation.

Thanks to this panel discussion, participants exchanged real cases that posed challenges for their countries and agreed to work on strengthening cooperation in the rapid exchange of information on assets, supporting requests for legal assistance, and jointly developing solutions for the recovery of assets that remain blocked in complex jurisdictions.