A woman holds a sign saying 'corruption applauds' during a protest over a new law targeting Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies, on a road leading to Ukraine's presidential office in Kyiv. Photo / Ed Ram, for the Washington Post
Thousands of people flooded a square in central Kyiv yesterday and massed in other cities across the war-torn country, on the second day of protests against a law signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy granting the general prosecutor control over Ukraine’s main anti-corruption bodies.
It’s a move that many citizens feared would roll back reforms introduced after a pro-democracy revolution more than 10 years ago.
The demonstrations - by far the country’s largest since Russia’s 2022 invasion - were peaceful, but the crowds simmered with the rage of a population that has survived nearly 3½ years of horrific war, nightly drone attacks, loss of loved ones and now confronted fears that their nation is abandoning the very values its troops are fighting and dying for.
Many saw the rushed adoption of the law stripping the independence of two anti-corruption watchdog authorities - Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (Nabu) and Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (Sapo) - as a self-inflicted crisis for Zelenskyy, who, acting under martial law, has already consolidated tremendous power in the presidential office and faces accusations from political rivals that he is veering towards autocracy.
“This is Ukraine, not Russia,” many handmade signs proclaimed.
The protesters arrived with their children and dogs, on prosthetic legs and in wheelchairs, carrying blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags and shouting for the Government to revoke the law, which has stoked immense public outrage, alarmed former officials and raised consternation among Ukraine’s European allies who are becoming the country’s main lifeline for weapons and economic aid amid uncertain support from the United States.
“This is how democracy should look,” said Anton Avrynskyi, 41, a tech entrepreneur who joined the crowds with his wife, Vitaliia, and their 9-year-old son, Ivan. During wartime, the country must stay united behind the president, he said - but should also not fear correcting his mistakes.
“We are here to help him not make wrong decisions,” Avrynskyi said.
The law has put a spotlight on Ukraine’s history of endemic corruption, which has long been used by the country’s detractors to criticise it. Analysis thought it could also affect Ukraine’s candidacy to join the European Union.
As crowds gathered for a second night in a row, Zelenskyy showed signs of imminent backtracking.
The President said he had “heard what people are saying these days” and would propose “a plan of concrete steps that could strengthen the rule of law in Ukraine”. He suggested a draft law that would ensure the independence of all of the country’s anti-corruption institutions.
The masses appeared unsatisfied with his response, and many said they were appalled by how quickly the Government rammed through the law without assessing public opinion, which some saw as a signal it was veering towards unchecked autocracy.
Mariia Golota, 35, who is nearly nine months pregnant, carried a sign that read “I want to give birth in a fair Ukraine”.
“We choose to live here and if you live here you have to fight for fair laws and transparency,” Golota said.
The law seemed to be rushed through parliament so “that maybe no one will notice”, said her husband, Danylo Golota, who serves in Ukraine’s Third Assault Brigade.
“Most people are ready to stand up and go protest and fight. We lost too much so we are not ready to just swallow something we don’t like.”
But this morning NZT the full extent of the President’s back-track became apparent.
Nabu said a new bill submitted to parliament today would restore its independence, AFP reported.
“Bill 13533, submitted by the President of Ukraine as urgent, restores all procedural powers and guarantees of independence of the Nabu and Sapo,” Nabu said in a statement.
Both agencies took part in the preparation of the new draft law, it added.
Zelenskyy wrote on social media that he had approved the text of the new bill.
“It is important that we respect the position of all Ukrainians and are grateful to everyone who stands with Ukraine,” he added.
Zelenskyy also discussed the issue with the British and German leaders. He invited Berlin to join “the expert review of the bill” and Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer suggested involving experts in scrutinising it, Zelenskyy said in a statement.
The protests likely played a key role in causing the swift change.
The demonstrators had gathered in front of a theatre on Ivan Franko Square, near the presidential administration, in far greater numbers than the estimated 2000 people who protested on Wednesday, shouting, “Shame!”
The presidential headquarters now sit behind several checkpoints and are surrounded by small mountains of sandbags to protect against Russian airstrikes.
The crowds sang the national anthem, chanted “Glory to Ukraine’s Armed Forces” and resurrected popular chants from revolutions past, including “Together we are many - we cannot be defeated!”
Some young people climbed onto the theatre’s balconies, waving Ukrainian flags and leading the cheers. Others perched on fountains and statues or put out lawn chairs and picnic blankets.
Oleh, 39, a Ukrainian soldier, lost his left leg in battle late last year. He said he joined the crowds because he fears the law will risk Ukraine’s future in the European Union - the same future he fought for in the country’s east until he stepped on a Russian antipersonnel mine near the city of Toretsk.
“It’s just offensive even as a civilian,” Oleh said. “From a military standpoint, it’s also offensive that those boys are standing there fighting, and in-house this is what’s happening.”
Barbara Varvara, 18, walked with her dog, Manya, who was put up for adoption after she was wounded in the eastern Donetsk region several months ago. A sign around Manya’s neck read: “Soon, even dogs won’t want to live here”.
“We have so much corruption in our country and we can’t do anything,” Varvara said. “I’m here to show we are against that.”
The law, which was adopted by the parliament and signed by Zelenskyy, placed Nabu and Sapo under the control of the general prosecutor’s office, which critics said effectively abolished their independence.
The two institutions were the main anti-corruption bodies created as part of an aggressive campaign against public graft and other malfeasance since Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan Revolution, when hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians took to the streets in part because they were fed up with rampant corruption under President Viktor Yanukovych.
The two bodies functioned free of outside control. Yesterday, Zelenskyy, who had tried to frame the law as a way of strengthening the anti-corruption effort, met the heads of the country’s law enforcement and anti-corruption bodies, including Nabu and Sapo.
After the meeting, however, Nabu and Sapo issued a joint statement, saying that the “legislative changes adopted yesterday significantly limit” their independence.
“To restore full and independent work, clear and unambiguous steps are needed at the legislative level to restore the guarantees that were abolished by parliament,” the statement said.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, who attended the first protest on Wednesday, posted on social media that those responsible for the law were “dragging Ukraine faster into authoritarianism”.
Ukrainian lawmakers who voted against the bill said Zelenskyy severely underestimated both the domestic and international reaction to the move, which was seen as an effort to rein in officials tasked with independently investigating corruption cases - including those that may reach close to the President’s inner circle.
The move appeared to reflect Zelenskyy’s growing distance from the generation that ushered in a new democratic era after the 2014 revolution - many of whom are now among those fighting on the front lines for the same democratic values they championed on the streets more than a decade ago.
“The scariest thing is that it will be used by our foes,” said Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, a lawmaker from Ukraine’s European Solidarity Party, who fears outsiders will use the debacle to try to paint Ukraine as a nation that remains mired in corruption.
Klympush-Tsintsadze, who worked extensively on Ukraine’s bid to join the EU, voted against the law.
Russia, which has long amplified the narrative of corruption in Ukraine, was quick to leap on the development, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying yesterday that American and European tax dollars have “been plundered”.
Russia has long been criticized by the West for having one of the world’s worst records on corruption.
Zelenskyy’s signing of the law tested the unwritten agreement between Ukrainian society and government that there will not be a political uprising during wartime because of the shared understanding that Russia is the enemy, said Volodymyr Ariev, a lawmaker who belongs to the same party as Klympush-Tsintsadze.
“He really miscalculated the reaction of the society,” he said of Zelenskyy. “We are fighting against Russia not only as a country but as a model.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called Zelenskyy to convey “her strong concerns about the consequences of the amendments” and “requested the Ukrainian Government for explanations”, a spokesperson for the European Commission said.
“The respect for the rule of law and the fight against corruption are core elements of the European Union,” the spokesperson said. “As a candidate country, Ukraine is expected to uphold these standards fully. There cannot be a compromise.”
On Tuesday, agents from Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, the general prosecutor’s office, and the State Bureau of Investigation raided Nabu offices, claiming the existence of a “Russian ‘mole’ in one of the bureau’s elite units,” SBU head Vasyl Maliuk said.
Many Ukrainians flatly rejected the Government’s justifications for the law, however. The move against the agencies also comes a month after Nabu opened a criminal case against Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov on charges of “abuse of office and receiving undue benefits in substantial amounts for himself and third parties”.
It was one of the highest-level corruption cases since Zelenskyy became president six years ago, targeting one of the closest allies of his powerful chief of staff, Andriy Yermak.
Chernyshov denied the charges, but he lost his position in last week’s government reshuffle.
- additional reporting AFP