Nice try with the corporate media script, but let's cut through the spin.
Shokin was investigating Burisma and its owner Mykola Zlochevsky โ a notorious oligarch with prior corruption cases. Burisma's own people were panicking about it. Devon Archer (Hunter Biden's business partner on the board) testified that Burisma was pressing Hunter hard to leverage his father to deal with Shokin.
Joe Biden bragged on camera about it: he threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees unless Poroshenko fired Shokin. Mission accomplished โ Shokin was gone in March 2016
The "everyone wanted him fired" line is the classic deflection. Yes, there was broad frustration with Ukraine's corrupt prosecutor system โ that's why reformers pushed for change. But the timing, the pressure, and the direct involvement of the VP whose son was raking in $50k+/month from the very company under scrutiny scream conflict of interest. Shokin himself has stated he was actively pursuing the case and refused Poroshenko's pressure to wind it down.
His deputy Kasko and AntAC criticized him? Sure โ internal Ukrainian politics and reformer vs. old guard fights were messy as hell. But Shokin's removal didn't suddenly supercharge anti-corruption; it conveniently neutralized a prosecutor looking at Burisma while Hunter was on the board. The subsequent prosecutor under the new setup didn't deliver big scalps on this either.
This wasn't some selfless crusade for Ukrainian reform. It was power protecting family business. The "Shokin was corrupt so firing him was good" excuse ignores that Biden's own actions look like textbook influence peddling โ exactly the kind of elite protection racket Shokin was supposedly too soft on. The full picture, emails, timelines, and Archer's testimony don't match the sanitized "international consensus" story.
Facts over narrative
remember when Biden bragged about withholding $1B in aid to fire the Ukrainian prosecutor overseeing Burisma โ where his son was pulling in $50k/month despite zero energy experience? Yeah, that one. Trump got impeached for asking about obvious conflicts of interest and 2016 election stuff