Zelenskyy approves bill weakening anti-corruption bodies despite big protests
The move on Tuesday puts the president on a collision course with civil society activists and some of its veterans and is likely to dismay Ukraine's European partners.
Earlier on Tuesday Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, passed a controversial bill that effectively removes the independence of the national anti-corruption bureau, known as Nabu, and the specialised anti-corruption prosecutors office.
It gives sweeping new powers to Ukraine's prosecutor general, and makes it easier for the government to control which cases are pursued. Critics say the legislation allows political interference and is a major step backwards in the fight against corruption.
Late on Tuesday Zelenskyy signed the bill into law, rejecting calls for him to use his presidential veto, according to reports. The decision has yet to be posted on the government's website.
View image in fullscreen
A woman chants while holding a banner that reads 'Corruption Applauds' during a protest against a law targeting anti-corruption institutions in central Kyiv on Tuesday. Photograph: Alex Babenko/AP
Hours earlier, about 1,500 protesters gathered next to Zelenskyy's presidential administration complex. They shouted slogans outside his window including 'Shame' and 'Veto the law' and waved homemade banners denouncing the bill.
They were protests in other large cities including Lviv, Dnipro and Odesa. 'If the bill goes ahead it will make it harder for Ukraine to join the European Union. We will go back to dictatorship,' Sasha Kazintseva said, speaking before Zelenskyy reportedly gave his approval.
She added: 'We don't want to be like Russia. Zelenskyy is still our president. But he does the wrong things we will say so.'
Her friend Tetiana Kukuruza held up a cardboard sign with the blunt slogan: 'Are you fucking crazy?' She explained: 'This is the first time since 2022 that we've taken to the streets. We know the names of the deputies who voted for this bill. I'm not saying they are corrupt. But they have interests.'
The protesters gathered in a park immediately below a rococo 19th-century government building, the House of Chimeras. The crowd was made up of students, young activists and army veterans, some of them draped in blue and yellow Ukrainian flags. Kyiv's mayor, Vitalii Klitschko, also took part, together with his brother Volodymyr.
Veronika Mol, an artist, said she worried Ukraine was sliding back to the era of Viktor Yanukovych, the corrupt pro-Russian president who fled to Moscow in 2014, following months of street protests. 'I'm surprised this has happened. It looks like some madness. I don't know what their motives are,' she said.
'People are the power in Ukraine. Not the president or government. It's terrible we still have to remind them,' Mol added.
There has been vocal condemnation of the bill from prominent soldiers, a celebrity chef and Ukraine's media. The writer Illia Ponomarenko said civil society was fighting 'the dark side of its own state' in parallel with the war against Russia.
He criticised 'corruption, abuse of power, lies, lack of transparency, nepotism, impunity, and attacks on democracy and freedom of speech – everything that keeps dragging us back toward the abyss, back into Russia's colonial criminal stable'.
Several of Ukraine's high-profile international supporters expressed concern. They included the former US ambassador to Moscow, Mike McFaul, and Estonian ex-president Toomas Hendrik Ilves. There was also recognition that protesters could freely voice anti-government opinions – unlike in Russia.
Ukraine's application to join the EU is dependent on the progress it makes in fighting corruption. Since 2022 EU countries have provided Kyiv with significant military and economic support running into billions of euros.
The European commissioner for enlargement, Marta Kos, criticised the bill's adoption. 'The dismantling of key safeguards protecting [anti-corruption bureau] NABU's independence is a serious step back,' Kos wrote on social media, saying that the two bodies were 'essential' for Ukraine's EU path.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Record
25 minutes ago
- Daily Record
Protest against American president Donald Trump to take place in Dumfries
Dumfries and Galloway Palestine Solidarity have organised a Trump-themed demonstration to coincide with the president's visit to Scotland. A protest against Donald Trump is due to take place in Dumfries this weekend. The American president is due to jet into Scotland today to visit two of his golf courses. He'll also hold trade talks with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. And that has led to an anti-Trump protest being organised for Dumfries town centre on Saturday afternoon. Dumfries and Galloway Palestine Solidarity have been holding regular Saturday protests in the High Street over the last few months. And they have now decided to hold a Trump-themed demonstration to coincide with the visit. It also comes in the same week US Congress voted against a proposal to cut military aid to Israel by $500 million. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. John Dennis of Dumfries and Galloway Trades Union has looked out placards from a previous demonstration and people are encouraged to bring their own signs and flags. There will also be songs, speeches and poetry. The protest starts at the Plainstanes at 2pm.
Spectator
2 hours ago
- Spectator
Can Ukraine forgive president Zelensky?
For six years in office, Volodymyr Zelensky never experienced the raging crowd beneath his window. But Ukraine's wartime president grew too powerful, too confident, bathing in the unwavering support of Ukrainians in the face of a greater evil. He overstepped. When Zelensky signed the bill stripping the anti-corruption institutions of their independence, he assumed Ukrainians would look the other way. They didn't. Protests against the law swept through the country. He did well to listen – and back down. But the damage to his image in Ukraine – and abroad – may now be beyond repair. On the third day since thousands took to the streets – after a cardboard sign declaring 'My father didn't die for this' was held aloft in front of him – Zelensky finally introduced a counter-law intended to cancel the scandalous one that had destroyed the independence of Ukraine's key anti-corruption bodies. Ukrainian lawmakers will return from their outrageous four-week holiday to vote on it in parliament. 'It is important that we maintain unity', Zelensky said. 'It is important that we respect the position of all Ukrainians'. The tape will rewind one week, and Ukraine's anti-corruption agency, Nabu, and the office of the anti-corruption prosecutor, Sapo, will continue investigating politicians regardless of their status. But questions will linger. What was it all for? What was the reason for this political suicide? There is no evidence of Zelensky's personal involvement in corruption, but the same cannot be said for those who share his office. In parliament alone, at least 17 MPs who voted for the scandalous bill have been suspected of corruption by Nabu. But most importantly, the bureau cast its eye over appointees linked to Zelensky's right-hand man, Andriy Yermak: Pavlo Kyrylenko, the current head of the Anti-monopoly Committee, suspected of illegally enriching himself by nearly £1 million, and Oleksiy Chernyshov, deputy prime minister, allegedly involved in a corruption scheme that cost the state more than £17 million. Both deny the claims. According to Holos MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak, Yermak was the mastermind behind the bill. Zelensky was persuaded that Nabu's digging into people around him had gotten out of control, harming his ratings. He thought that Ukraine's allies would swallow it without protest. In less than a day, the bill passed the Verkhovna Rada to the cheers, laughter and applause of 263 MPs, some of whom were under investigation by the very institutions they had just voted to destroy. By evening, nothing could stop Zelensky from signing it: not the pleas from the Ukrainian public gathered in front of his office in Kyiv, nor the appeals from G7 ambassadors, nor phone calls from French president Emmanuel Macron and Antonio Costa, European Council president. The pace was unprecedented for a president known to let dozens of draft laws gather dust on his desk for months. Appalled Ukrainians, including Zelensky's most avid supporters, saw this move as a blatant attempt by the government to steal and avoid accountability. They saw their blood-earned chance to join the EU snatched from under their noses by the very man they had stood behind for over three years of full-scale war. They watched as European and American allies began to question their continued financial support for Ukraine. The unwritten agreement – to set politics aside and focus on the common enemy, Russia – was broken. Zelensky, who still enjoyed 67 per cent public trust according to a recent Rating Group poll, was the one to crack it. His feat of staying in Kyiv and rallying the world behind Ukraine's cause when Russia invaded has now been stained. Even when this shameful law is scrapped, that stain will be impossible to wash off.
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Hong Kong issues arrest warrants for 19 overseas activists, offers bounties for 15
HONG KONG, July 25 (Reuters) - Hong Kong's national security police announced arrest warrants for 19 activists based overseas, accusing them of subversion under a stringent national security law, marking the largest such tally yet. They are accused of organizing or participating in the "Hong Kong Parliament", a group authorities in the Asian financial hub say aimed to subvert state power, under the law Beijing imposed in 2020 following months of pro-democracy protests in 2019. The activists are accused of having launched a referendum or run as candidates in the unofficial "Hong Kong Parliament" group, which authorities say aims at achieving self-determination and drafting a "Hong Kong constitution". Police, who said the organisation sought to overthrow the governments of China and Hong Kong by unlawful means, said they are still investigating and further arrests may follow. Among those named are businessman Elmer Yuen, commentator Victor Ho, and activists Johnny Fok and Tony Choi. Four of them are subject to previous arrest warrants, each carrying a bounty of HK$1 million ($127,000). Among the remaining 15, for each of whom police are offering a bounty of HK$200,000 ($25,480), are those said to have organised or run in the election and sworn in as its councillors. None of the accused could be reached for comment. The former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997 with the guarantee of a high degree of autonomy, including freedom of speech, under a "one country, two systems" formula. Critics of the national security law say authorities are using it to stifle dissent. Chinese and Hong Kong officials have repeatedly said the law was vital to restore stability after the city was rocked for months by sometimes violent anti-government and anti-China protests in 2019. Police reiterated that national security offenses were serious crimes with extraterritorial reach and urged the wanted individuals to return to Hong Kong and surrender. "If offenders voluntarily give up continuing to violate the crime, turn themselves in, truthfully confess their crimes, or provide key information that helps solve other cases, they may be eligible for reduced punishment," they said in a statement. Police also warned that aiding, abetting, or funding others to participate in the "Hong Kong Parliament" could be a criminal offense. ($1=7.8488 Hong Kong dollars)
