Thousands of Ukrainians took to the streets on Tuesday to protest a contentious law signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky that severely weakened the country’s top anti-corruption agencies.
The Kyiv Post saw two or three thousand young people rallying around the Ivan Franko Theater near the presidential complex in central Kyiv. It was the first such demonstration since the Russian invasion began in February 2022. Ukraine has been under martial law since then and public protests are technically illegal.
Kyiv Post reporter Sergii Kostezh said the protesters were “crying that they do not wish to return to the times of Yanukovych,” or the “times of pro-Russian governance in Ukraine.”
Viktor Yanukovych was the fabulously corrupt pro-Russian leader deposed by the Euromaidan uprising in 2014, beginning the sequence of events that led to the Russian invasion. Moscow regards Yanukovych’s ouster as a coup orchestrated by Western governments.
Protesters carried signs reading “Veto the Law,” “Protect the Anti-Corruption System, Protect Ukraine’s Future,” “Support Corruption? Go to Hell,” “How are You Better Than the Russians?” and “We Are Against It.”
Another popular chant roughly translated to “I’m not a sucker,” which made the protest personal by mocking a quote from President Zelensky that is well-known in Ukraine.
“Those who swore to protect the laws and the Constitution have instead chosen to shield their inner circle, even at the expense of Ukrainian democracy,” charged protester Oleh Symoroz, a military veteran who lost his legs fighting the Russians.
“Instead of setting an example of zero tolerance for corruption, the president is using his power to take control of criminal cases involving his allies,” Symoroz lamented.
The controversial bill signed by Zelensky on Tuesday, Bill No. 12414, eliminates the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO). The two agencies would be placed under the control of the Prosecutor General’s Office, which means they would be effectively controlled by the president.
NABU and SAPO have been independent agencies since 2015 and their independence has been credited with enabling them to investigate powerful politicians who might otherwise be immune to scrutiny.
“If this bill is passed, the head of the SAPO will become a nominal figure, and the NABU will lose its independence and become a subdivision of the Prosecutor General’s Office,” NABU warned in a statement on Tuesday.
NABU’s statement noted that the Prosecutor General would be empowered to give orders directly to anti-corruption investigators — and take cases away from them or shut the investigations down completely, if those orders were not followed.
The Kyiv Post noted that even as Zelensky was signing Bill No. 12414, NABU was lodging bribery allegations against a senior official of the Security Service (SBU) — Ukraine’s equivalent of the FBI — for destroying evidence. The day before that, the SBU raided NABU and SAPO after accusing two NABU officials of being Russian agents.
Combined with last week’s cabinet reshuffle, his critics said Zelensky’s gutting of NABU and SAPO were part of a bid for the president to consolidate power and secure his inner circle from investigations or accountability.
Zelensky cited the allegations of NABU officials colluding with the Russians to defend his controversial legislation. He also accused NABU and SAPO of deliberately botching and delaying investigations against officials they wanted to protect.
“The anti-corruption infrastructure will work, only without Russian influence — it needs to be cleared of that,” Zelensky said in a video address on Tuesday.
“The cases that have been lying dormant must be investigated. There is no rational explanation for why criminal proceedings worth billions have been left hanging for years,” he continued.
“The prosecutor general is determined to ensure that in Ukraine the inevitability of punishment for those who go against the law is actually ensured,” he promised.
Zelensky acknowledged the protests against Bill No. 12414 on Wednesday morning, and said the concerns of the demonstrators would be addressed, but seemed determined to move forward with the new law.
“We all hear what society is saying. We see what people expect from state institutions: ensured justice and the effective functioning of each institution,” he said.
The European Commission (EC) was skeptical of the new law on Wednesday, announcing that President Ursula von der Leyen “conveyed her strong concerns about the consequences of the amendments” and requested “explanations” from the Ukrainian president in a telephone conversation.
“The respect for the rule of law and the fight against corruption are core elements of the European Union. As a candidate country, Ukraine is expected to uphold these standards fully. There cannot be a compromise,” said EC spokesman Guillaume Mercier.
Other EC and EU officials have reportedly reached out to Ukrainian officials to express their concerns, and caution that Ukraine’s possible accession to the EU would be severely hindered by failing to meet the bloc’s anti-corruption standards.
“Ukraine belongs in Europe and our support goes to its people. But our support has never been and will never be a blank cheque for any actions of the government,” Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said on Tuesday.
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