On Wednesday, December 16, certain provisions of the law on the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), recognized as unconstitutional by the decision of the Constitutional Court of the country (CCU) of September 16, become invalid, but this in no way changed the status of Artem Sytnyk as a director of NABU or the status of the Bureau itself, Minister of Justice of Ukraine Denys Maliuska said.

"Today, some provisions of the law on NABU, recognized as unconstitutional by the decision of the CCU dated September 9, 2020, are no longer valid. Let me remind you that by its decision the CCU established a 3-month deferral of loss by virtue of the norms of the law ... as a result of the decision of the CCU, there is no procedure for appointing a director of NABU now," Maliuska wrote on his Facebook page on Wednesday morning.

At the same time, he added that the decision of the Constitutional Court, which came into force, in no way changed the status of Sytnyk as a director of NABU or the status of NABU itself.

"NABU continues to work fully and perform its functions ... Artem Sytnyk remains actual director of NABU," Maliuska stressed.

According to the Minister of Justice, the authorities' plan in connection with the current situation in this matter consists of two parts.

The first part involves returning the authority to the president on the appointment and dismissal of the director of NABU.

"The only possible mechanism for such a return is changes to the Constitution. The draft of such changes is now being discussed by deputies," he said.

The second point of the plan is to regulate separate procedures for the functioning of NABU (not concerning the appointment of the director of NABU) with a separate draft law for the transitional period (before the amendments to the Constitution come into force). "Such a bill has already been prepared by the government and registered under No. 4437. We expect its consideration by the parliament this winter," the minister said.

According to such a plan, Sytnyk will continue to work as a director of NABU and perform his functions either until the day of the election of a new director under a new procedure (after changes to the Constitution and the law on NABU), or until the expiration of his appointment - April 16, 2022 (in this case his powers will be transferred to the corresponding deputy), Maliuska said.

"The director of NABU can be released earlier than the term specified above, only if the grounds specified in Part 4 of Article 6 of the law on NABU arise (voluntary dismissal, appointment to another position, acquisition of citizenship of another state, etc.) there are no such grounds now," the Minister of Justice noted.