This week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy passed an anti-corruption bill that would restore the independence of the country's anti-corruption agencies.
The move marks a complete turnaround from earlier in the week when Zelensky had approved a law that weakened the autonomy of the anti-corruption bodies, sparking a public outcry and widespread protests, which were the first since the war began in February 2022.
Russian media agency TASS reported that nearly 9000 people protested in Kyiv against the bill that was passed, and that by July 24, there were rallies held in at least 12 Ukrainian cities.
Zelenskyy’s approval of the bill was also condemned by European allies. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski warned that Ukrainians’ hopes of making it into the EU would be slim if it did not have an independent anti-corruption system. EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos had expressed concern over the law approved earlier this week and called it “a serious step back.”
Zelenskyy had claimed that he initially wanted to remove the independence of the bodies to speed up the investigation and remove Russian meddling.
On July 24, Zelenskyy submitted a new draft bill to the legislature that would strengthen the anti-corruption agencies. Ukraine's two main anti-graft agencies, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutors Office (SAPO), had welcomed the new bill, saying that it guarantees their independence.
The agencies also said that they helped draft the new bill and urged lawmakers to adopt it as soon as possible, according to AP.
He made a U-turn and said that the new bill will reverse the changes and also introduce additional measures to combat Russian influence like mandatory polygraph tests for law enforcement officers. The new draft also says that the prosecutor general and his deputies cannot interfere or give orders to the anti-graft agencies.
The bill has not yet been voted on in the parliament, and protests are likely to continue until it is; however, the crowds have grown smaller since Thursday. The Ukrainian parliament is expected to convene on July 30 to review the new draft.
Ukrainian media speculated that Zelensky might have approved the old bill due to the two anti-graft agencies closing in on his inner circle, who were actively helping with the war. Experts who spoke to the Kyiv Independent did not call Zelenskyy corrupt, but instead named his action a political miscalculation.
Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia Dmitry Polyanskiy spoke at the UN this week and made a number of accusations against the Ukrainian government and Zelenskyy, including forced conscription of citizens and arrests of political opposition. Russia said that the “anti-corruption structures independent from the president have prepared compromising material and criminal cases against Zelenskyy and his inner circle.” He also said that the Ukrainian president's “accomplices are destroying documents exposing corruption in the highest echelons of power in Kyiv”, and he and his team have “spent billions of dollars in budget funds and western aid.”