Here is Ukraine’s score in Corruption Perceptions Index 2018, presented by the colleagues at Transparency International Ukraine, as seen by different audiences.

A pessimist: just 32 points out of 100, rank 120/180, and this is the fifth year since the Revolution of Dignity. Not only is the entire EU ahead of us, but also Moldova, Belarus, Georgia and Armenia. We need 5 years to get to the worst EU score, and 10 years to get to the EU average. The first half of 2018 is assessed, so that’s going to come back to us next year because the SAPO is headed by a suspect of corruption. No political will. #fail

An optimist: we have gotten ahead of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, and now rank 8 out of 15 post-Soviet countries, vs. rank 10 last year. During the past four years, we have been steadily getting better, and we have the best score since 1998 when Ukraine was added to the index. This year, the Anti-Corruption Court will be launched, and our score will be better. We have to make the right choice at the elections and continue with the reforms. #win

A realist: so far, we are riding the wave of 2014-2015 achievements. We have ProZorro, ProZorro.Sale, automatic VAT refunds, open property registers (imperfect as they may be), open budgets (incomplete as they are) working for us.  Our rank mostly improves because others’ scores are getting worse. We need to get the justice system in order, deprive law enforcement of the possibility to attack business, deregulate the relations between businesses and authorities, reboot the NACP and the SAPO, improve protection of whistleblowers and give them opportunities to work with the authorities. During the next years, we have every chance to get better and to get worse. It all depends on us. #thefightgoeson

Choose whichever point of view suits you best. They are all truthful, in their own way.