Zelensky ‘destroys' Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies after they target his allies

Telegraph

5 days ago

Voldymyr Zelensky faced public protests on Tuesday night after parliament backed a controversial bill limiting the power of anti-corruption agencies.
Thousands, including veterans, gathered close to the president's office to demand Mr Zelensky back down, amid widespread international condemnation over the proposal.
The demonstrations, which have reportedly spread to Lviv and Dnipro, are the first public protests against the Ukrainian president since the Russian invasion of February 2022.
Earlier in the day, cries of 'shame!' were heard in the Verkhovna Rada as MPs backed the proposal to give the prosecutor general, a position appointed directly by the president, more power over the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (Nabu) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.
The bill was pushed by the president's office and came after both agencies investigated senior Ukrainian officials, including those close to the president.
Protesters on the streets of Kyiv demanded Mr Zelenksy veto the measure, despite Ukrainian politicians saying he had already signed it into law.
Semen Kryvonos, the head of Nabu, urged Mr Zelensky not to approve the bill, saying it would 'destroy' the work of the two institutions.
Opponents of the Ukrainian president have long raised concerns about the president centralising power under the guise of war-time necessity, and the move follows weeks of manoeuvres against pro-reform and anti-corruption activists.
The protests came a day after Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) agents carried out raids on the Nabu and Sapo offices, alleging a broad range of crimes from Russian infiltration to traffic violations. Fifteen Nabu officials were placed under investigation.
Nabu, which was set up with the assistance of the FBI and the EU, recently opened a criminal case against Oleksiy Chernyshov, a close ally of the president, on charges of abuse of power and illegal enrichment. He denies the charges but was dismissed in last week's government reshuffle.
Brussels on Tuesday said it was 'concerned' by the draft law and pointed out that its payments to Ukraine were 'conditional on progress in transparency, judicial reform and democratic governance'.
In the Ukrainian parliament, the bill passed with the support of 263 MPs, with 13 abstaining and 13 voting against.
The legislation would grant Ukraine's prosecutor general, a position appointed directly by the president, more power over the two anti-corruption agencies, including the ability to reassign or redirect investigations.
Oleksiy Goncharenko, an opposition MP who voted against the measure, said the bill was 'about the end of the independence of anti-corruption bodies inside Ukraine', blaming the 'personal choice of President Zelensky'.
The president may have been motivated by the recent investigation of Mr Chernyshov, the former vice-president, who is 'very close' to him, Mr Goncharenko told the Telegraph.
'I'm not a supporter of President Zelensky at all, but at the same time, internationally, I've always supported his efforts. But today he made a very bad choice ... and it will definitely make Ukraine weaker.'
'Small democracies can win over bigger autocracies,' he said, referring to Russia. 'But small autocracies will sooner or later be swallowed by bigger ones.'
A second measure to immediately send the legislation to the president's desk for his signature into law passed with 246 votes. Mr Goncharenko said he heard it had already been signed.
Meaghan Mobbs, the daughter of US special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellog, said: 'This decision is truly, unbelievably, mind-bogglingly stupid. It happens at the worst possible time given the recent positive shifts in US policy.'
Ukrainian celebrities implored Mr Zelensky not to sign the law, including the popular chef Yehven Klopotenko and actor-turned-military fundraiser Serhiy Prytula.
Anastasia Radina, the head of the parliamentary anti-corruption committee, was reportedly the only member of Mr Zelensky's Servant of the People party to speak out against the legislation ahead of the vote.
'I ask you, colleagues, not to deceive yourselves and the people that you are voting for some mild strengthening of the prosecutor general, and not for the dismantling of Nabu and Sapo,' she said.
'After the amendments that the committee added to this bill today, contrary to the rules, the anti-corruption prosecutor's office becomes a fiction for budget funds.'
On Tuesday, Nabu announced that, together with Sapo, it had charged a senior SBU officer and two accomplices with extorting a $300,000 bribe. The case involved a military officer accused of facilitating illegal border-crossings for men seeking to flee the country.
No senior government figure had publicly defended the law by Tuesday afternoon, amid a furious backlash from Ukrainian civil society.
'Anti-democratic backslide'
'Last week, we ran an editorial warning of an anti-democratic backslide in Ukraine,' said Olga Rudenko, editor-in-chief of the respected Kyiv Independent. 'Today, it's happening in plain sight.
'This isn't what our people have been fighting and dying for, and it's devastatingly unfair to them.'
The German foreign office said in a statement: 'The independence and strength of Ukraine's anti-corruption institutions have been key to reform efforts of recent years. Ukraine will continue to be measured against their progress.'
'Europe helped pull Zelensky's relationship back from the brink of collapse after the Oval Office debacle. But now this unforced error by Kyiv. Where does it leave Ukraine's EU accession?' said Nigel Gould-Davies, a former UK ambassador to Belarus and senior fellow at the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), a Washington-based think tank.
Before the vote, Guillaume Mercier, a spokesman for the European Commission, said: '[Nabu and Sapo] are crucial to Ukraine's reform agenda and must operate in an independent way to fight corruption and maintain public trust.'
'The EU provides significant financial assistance to Ukraine conditional on progress in transparency, judicial reform and democratic governance.'
'Ukraine's accession [to the EU] will require a strong capacity to combat corruption and to ensure institutional resilience.'