Faced with angry protests at home and opprobrium from the West after signing a law that critics say robs anti-corruption agencies of their independence and sets back years of progress on justice and the rule of law, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blinked.
But it’s unclear how far his backpedaling will go and whether he will manage to contain one of the biggest domestic crises in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Just two days after signing the legislation that his own government had pushed swiftly through the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, Zelenskyy approved a new "well-balanced" bill after saying that the outcry had not fallen on deaf ears and that it “is important that we respect the position of all Ukrainians and are grateful to everyone who stands with Ukraine."
“I’ve just approved the text of a draft bill that guarantees real strengthening of Ukraine’s law enforcement system, independence of anti-corruption agencies, and reliable protection of the law enforcement system against any Russian influence or interference," he said in a post on X on July 24.
"Most importantly, it includes real tools, excludes any Russian ties, and upholds the independence of NABU and SAPO. The draft bill will be submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine today."
Zelenskyy's announcement came after a July 23 meeting of the heads of law enforcement agencies, anti-corruption agencies, and the Prosecutor-General’s Office for their input to help “make it happen.”
But he offered few details about the content of the new bill and did not say he would seek to undo the legislation he signed on July 22 -- law No. 12414, its official number, which is scrawled on many of the cardboard signs held by protesters.
Opponents of the law called for more protests on July 24, and a member of the opposition Holos party said 48 Rada lawmakers had backed draft legislation that aimed to restore the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), setting it up for a possible vote as early as July 25.
The law makes Ukraine’s Prosecutor-General the de facto head of SAPO, effectively stripping the agency's chief of their authority, and allows the prosecutor-general to unilaterally close cases involving top officials and reassign cases being investigated by NABU to other agencies.
NABU and SAPO officials said on July 23 that "clear and unambiguous steps" are needed to restore the safeguards against governmental interference that they were previously guaranteed.
The European Union called the decision to adopt the original bill a "serious step back," while other opponents of the law voiced concern that it represented a stark reversal after a decade of democratization following the pro-European and anti-corruption Maidan protests, which pushed Moscow-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych from power in 2014 in what came to be called the Revolution of Dignity.
“In essence, Ukraine is being dragged 10 years back in terms of the fight against corruption,” Dmytro Kozyatynskiy, a young veteran of the war against Russia’s invasion, said at one of the initial protests against the law in Kyiv.
The new law “strips society of one of the greatest achievements since the Revolution of Dignity -- independent anti-corruption institutions,” according to Transparency International Ukraine.
Defending the legislation shortly after he signed it, Zelenskyy said it was needed to remove “Russian influence” from the fight against corruption. He again suggested that was a prominent goal when he promised a day later to submit a new bill, saying there “will be no Russian influence or interference in the activities of law enforcement agencies.”
Playing Into Moscow's Hands
Critics say that, on the contrary, the original legislation plays into Moscow’s hands in ways that could weaken Ukraine’s defense against the Russian onslaught, threatening to undermine unity among Ukrainians and sap support for Kyiv from the West at a crucial juncture in the war.
It could also amplify concerns in Washington about Ukrainian corruption at a time when US President Donald Trump has begun to lay a large part of the blame for the lack of progress toward peace on Russia and promised to increase supplies of weapons to Ukraine via Europe.
Prominent US Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Republican, and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the most senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed concern about the new law in a statement on July 23.
“Ukraine has made enormous strides on its anti-corruption agenda since the Revolution of Dignity…The Verkhovna Rada’s recent passage of a law, signed by President Zelenskyy, we fear undermines much of that progress and goes against Ukraine’s tremendous fighting spirit as well as the expectations of Ukraine’s citizenry and the international community,” Shaheen and Graham said.
“One of the most widely used talking points for ending support for Ukraine is that it was awash with corruption” they said. “We acknowledge that Ukraine continues to make progress on this front and we urge the government to refrain from any actions that undermine that progress.”
Trump has threatened to impose new sanctions on Russia if Moscow and Kyiv do not reach a deal by early September to stop the fighting. A third round of talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in Istanbul on July 23 produced no apparent progress toward peace.
