Ukraine approves law restoring independence of anti-graft watchdogs following backlash : NPR
The demonstrators protest against the bill proposed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in kyiv, Ukraine on Thursday.
EFREM LUKATSKY / AP
hide
tilting legend
EFREM LUKATSKY / AP
Kyiv, Ukraine – After a public outcry and pressure from the European Union, a new law is now in force in Ukraine to restore the independence of state agencies investigating corruption.
The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented this bill after having faced his first internal political crisis since Russian on the scale of Russia three and a half years ago. He and the Ukrainian Parliament reversed the course after approving a previous bill to place anti-corruption agencies under a prosecutor supported by Zelenskyy.
Thousands of Ukrainians took the streets to protest, appealing to an authoritarian decision.
“It is very important that the state listens to public opinion and hears its citizens,” said Zelenskyy in a video address on Thursday. “Ukraine is a democracy for sure. There is no doubt.”
Ukrainian legislators vote for a new bill proposed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to restore the independence of the country’s anti-corruption agencies, in Parliament Session Hall in kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 31, 2025.
Sarakhan Vadym / AP
hide
tilting legend
Sarakhan Vadym / AP
The two agencies-the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the specialized office of the anti-corruption prosecutor-were created after 2014, when a pro-democracy revolution lowered a corrupt president and aligned by the Kremlin, Viktor Yanukovych. The EU, who gave Ukraine has more than 178 billion dollars since January 2022, considers these agencies as crucial for institutional reforms that Ukraine is required to finish before the country joins the block of 27 members.
After last week’s move to weaken anti-corruption agencies, the EU froze $ 1.7 billion in non-military aid. Writing on social networks, Marta Kos, the EU Commissioner for enlargement, said The new law “restores the main guarantees but challenges remain”.
Thursday’s vote in Parliament was broadcast live. The Ukrainians looking outside the outside waited nervously while a timer inside the rooms of the Parliament had until the end of the vote. When they saw that almost all legislators supported the new law, they applauded and sung.
Yehor Soboliev is a former legislator who, years ago, helped write the legislation authorizing anti-corruption agencies to conduct investigations independently. It is now used in the army and says that transparency is particularly crucial now.
“We are fighting a country that is several times greater than us, has many more resources and can throw them away to conquer us,” he said. “Efficiency means survival. It’s simple: everything that weakens Ukraine’s ability to fight or preserve its freedom is a problem that must be solved immediately.”
Sobobev says that last week has shown that Ukraine “is probably the last country in the world where you can create a dictatorship”. And, he adds, this applies even if the country defends itself in a war against Russia.
“We must simultaneously hold the front line,” he says, “while pushing democracy and this country forward.”
