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Spectator
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Spectator
Zelensky's anti-corruption overhaul will not be forgotten quickly
Last week, the Ukrainian parliament voted to destroy two key anti-corruption institutions. Outrage followed, and now lawmakers have been forced to cut short their summer holidays and return to Kyiv to reverse the law. More than a thousand demonstrators shouted 'Shame!' as the MPs drove past them to the Verkhovna Rada. In two rapid back-to-back readings, 331 lawmakers voted to restore the independence of Ukraine's anti-corruption agency, Nabu, and the office of the anti-corruption prosecutor, Sapo. Zelensky signed it immediately. The reputational damage, though, was irreversible. The circus that followed the vote only deepened public disgust toward the politicians they no longer want to represent them. For the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion, today's proceedings were broadcast live for the whole nation to see. Live coverage from the Verkhovna Rada had been banned on 'security grounds' since 24 February 2022, but Ukraine's civil society believed the government was trying to restrict citizens' right to information under the guise of ensuring national security, especially considering that opposition MPs have been livestreaming sessions from their phones anyway. It was convenient for the government to keep the public eye focused on something else, but as national outrage peaked last week, parliament had no choice but to reverse this measure. What Ukraine saw today was a parade of hypocrisy. One by one, lawmakers took to the podium to denounce the very bill they pressed the green button for last week. Two MPs broke into a fistfight. Oleksiy Goncharenko, of the European Solidarity party and one of the few lawmakers who opposed the controversial law, took the podium to lash out at Zelensky: 'Forget about the second term. This is a stain no khaki blazer can cover. This is ze end,' he shouted, referring to Zelensky's nickname in Ukraine. 'Save the country, not your friends!', he continued. The investigations by Ukraine's independent media have revealed that last week's bill was designed in the president's office to protect people in Zelensky's close circle from corruption charges. Zelensky's U-turn has sparked a protest even in his own Servant of the People party. MP Dmytro Kostiuk announced he is quitting in protest, claiming he was pressured to vote for the bill last week. He is not alone. Many of Zelensky's MPs, who have rubber-stamped the president's bills, plan not to do so anymore. Their blind obedience to the president's orders has cost them their credibility, and they won't forget it when their votes are needed in the future. Several opposition MPs, who had been blaming Zelensky for centralising power and turning the parliamentary-presidential republic into an autocracy, used the session to call for the parliament to reclaim its independence. Dmytro Razumkov, a former member of Zelensky's party, asked his colleagues: 'Aren't you tired of eating shit in this hall and feeding it to the people?'. Yaroslav Zhelezniak, of the Holos party, urged lawmakers to stop being afraid to go against the president's office. Iryna Herashchenko, of European Solidarity, said parliament had been reduced to a herd of 'serfs instead of lawmakers' and accused Zelensky of choosing to 'lead corruption, not fight it.' Outside, a crowd of young protesters who had survived one of Russia's largest bombings last night erupted in cheers as the scandalous law was overturned. They weren't calling for fresh elections, at least not yet. Most Ukrainians accept that holding a vote during wartime could do more harm than good to a country fighting for its survival. They rallied to defend their future from the disastrous decisions of a government they have been stuck with for six years. Today's theatre inside the Verkhovna Rada revealed that while soldiers defend the country at the frontline, it's up to civilians to stop the enemy within.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Ukraine parliament to vote on law to restore powers of anti-corruption bodies
Ukraine's parliament will vote on a new law on Thursday that would restore independence to two anti-corruption bodies, backtracking on a controversial law passed last week that curtailed their powers and led to a political crisis. Last week's legal changes prompted rare wartime street protests against the president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and accusations that the presidential office was trying to protect powerful associates from anti-corruption investigations. Thousands of people took to the streets of Kyiv and other cities, while European leaders spoke with Zelenskyy and made it clear that funding for Kyiv could be affected if he was seen to be hampering anti-corruption efforts. Surprised and alarmed by the strength of the reaction, Zelenskyy announced late last week that he had listened to the criticism and would table a new law. 'It seems they really miscalculated, they completely underestimated the strength of the reaction,' said a western diplomat based in Kyiv. The institutions in question are the national anti-corruption bureau, known as Nabu, and the specialised anti-corruption prosecutor's office, Sapo. Both work independently of other law-enforcement bodies specifically to target high-level corruption. Oleksandr Klymenko, the head of Sapo, told a small group of journalists in a briefing at his office in Kyiv on Wednesday that his office received a tipoff that measures were being prepared against them two weeks ago, but had not expected the 'blitzkrieg' assault that followed, with the law being rushed through parliament with little discussion. He said he hoped the parliament would now pass the new law, and that it would be ratified and enacted 'immediately'. Explaining the hastily passed law last week, Zelenskyy said he feared Nabu and Sapo had been infiltrated by Russian agents, and also said he wanted to ensure closer cooperation between different law enforcement bodies, but this has been brushed off by many Ukrainians as excuses. Klymenko declined to blame Zelenskyy personally for the move against the two institutions but suggested it was 'revenge' for taking on certain sensitive cases and defended the track record of the two bodies. 'To say in 2025 that these bodies are ineffective is just absurd. It's a narrative that is being spread to discredit us, we have information that they are looking for information to dump it in the media and just such a narrative that is now being spread in the media in order to somehow discredit us,' he said. Klymenko said Nabu and Sapo currently had open investigations into 31 sitting MPs, and that the prospect of being caught meant fewer top officials risked engaging in corrupt activities. 'The main thing about our work is the enormous preventive effect it has,' he said. He said last week's law, as well as the arrest of two Nabu detectives, had left the agencies 'confused and frightened', and might cause 'lasting damage' even if the bill was reversed. Already, he said, government whistleblowers who were in communication with the agencies had gone dark, fearing their identities could be compromised. Several European leaders spoke last week with Zelenskyy about the law, urging him to find a way out of the crisis. 'It was important for him to hear it from his peers,' said the diplomat. European officials have also cautiously criticised the bill in public. 'The dismantling of key safeguards protecting [anti-corruption bureau] Nabu's independence is a serious step back,' the European commissioner for enlargement, Marta Kos, wrote on social media. She added that the two bodies were 'essential' to keep Ukraine on the path to EU accession. A new protest is planned for Kyiv on Wednesday evening, with the goal of 'reminding MPs to do the right thing', said Dmytro Koziatynskyi, a former combat medic who was the first to call people to protest last week. 'This is not something I went to war for … and others on the frontline are not there so the government can do crazy stuff like this,' he said, explaining the source of the frustration that led him to demand protests. He added, however, that there was no chance of the protest turning revolutionary, with everyone in attendance acutely aware of the dangers of political destabilisation in wartime. He praised the government for being 'ready for dialogue' and backtracking on the moves, and said the protests showed that Ukrainian democracy was still strong even though the war makes elections impossible.
Spectator
6 days ago
- Politics
- Spectator
Why Zelensky reversed his anti-corruption overhaul
On Tuesday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy approved a law to gut Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies. On Thursday he backtracked, and said he would put forward new legislation to restore their independence. The original legislation would have stripped both the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (Nabu) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (Sapo) of their independence, bringing them under direct executive control. The official reason for the legislation was to cleanse Ukraine's investigative bodies of Russian influence. A spy, apparently, was suspected in their ranks. But treason has become the calling card for the consolidation of power in Ukraine. Earlier this year, Petro Poroshenko – President Zelensky's main declared challenger in the next election – was sanctioned for high treason, effectively barring him from running for high office. Ukrainians have had enough. With Donald Trump warming to his Ukrainian counterpart after their bust-up in the Oval Office, the 'rally-around-the-flag' effect that recently buoyed Zelensky – after months of sagging poll numbers – has now dissipated. The legislative coup provoked the largest demonstration since Russia's invasion in 2022. Many read it as creeping authoritarianism, marked by increasingly staccato punctuation. Even in international media that reliably lionises Zelensky, stories are beginning to percolate about the monopolisation of power, the use of lawfare to sideline political opponents, the harassment of civil society and a growing crackdown on dissent. Yet Tuesday's institutional hijacking was an escalation, considering what is at stake. Nabu and Sapo were originally established as a condition for western support after Russia's invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine in 2014. Donors needed assurances that funds would not be siphoned off, viewing accountability as essential for maintaining domestic backing for their aid packages. The IMF predicated its bailout programmes on Ukraine's anti-corruption commitments, and western capitals have repeatedly linked continued support to efforts to root out graft. At a time when European governments are struggling to cover the shortfall left by President Trump's withdrawal of US aid, the implications for international support could be severe. Before this week's legislation, Ukraine's anti-corruption community was under pressure. Earlier in July, Ukrainian authorities raidedthe home of the country's leading anti-corruption campaigner without a warrant, accusing him of draft evasion and fraud. Then, on the eve of the vote, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) – long seen as a tool for political enforcement – carried out 70 raids on Nabu and Sapo staff. They ransacked their offices and arrested a lead investigator. But as Ukrainians know – and western diplomats will privately concede – the problems within Nabu run deeper. The agency has long been accused of operating under the influence of the presidential administration and Zelensky's éminence grise, chief of staff Andriy Yermak. Nabu has been variously criticised for ineffectiveness, for steering clear of presidential allies, or conversely, for being used as a tool of political persecution. It begs the question what changed. The threads lead back to the case of Oleksiy Chernyshov, a former deputy prime minister, a close ally of the president, who was charged with corruption last month. Nabu had long been accused of toothlessness when it came to investigating those close to power. But the consequence of baring its teeth has been its defanging. For some time, Chernyshov's case was rumoured to have been quietly manoeuvred out of investigation by the pliant head of Nabu, Semen Kryvonos. Last year, a court issued a warrant to search Chernyshov's residence in connection with alleged corruption in 'Big Construction' – Zelensky's flagship infrastructure programme, known locally as the 'Great Theft'. But the search was never executed, reportedly at Kryvonos' request. Kryvonos himself owed his previous post to the backing of both Chernyshov and Yermak. The inner circle, it seemed, would remain safe under his tenure at the agency – a role he was appointed to despite having no background in anti-corruption. It was only after internal pressure within Nabu eventually forced Kryvonos to act on Chernyshov. It confirmed what many had long suspected – that the President's office exercised quiet control over the institution. The moment that control looked in doubt, its independence was shut down. For western partners, the balancing act of funding Ukraine while withholding public criticism has collapsed. The G7 ambassadors have released a statement confirming they had met with Nabu and now 'have serious concerns and intend to discuss these developments with government leaders'. Corruption has long stymied Ukraine. It was the thrust behind the Maidan protests: the call to expel the oligarchs that controlled the country without accountability. It made Ukraine vulnerable to invasion in 2014 in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. It propelled Zelensky himself to political power as an outsider who could sweep away graft. Still, more Ukrainians now see corruption as a greater threat to the country's development than Russian aggression. Many of Ukraine's western partners have justified their support as a defence of democracy against corrupt autocracy. Even with Zelensky's backtracking, with the dismemberment of Ukraine's independent institutions, many will now legitimately ask: whom, and what, are they funding?
Spectator
7 days ago
- Politics
- 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.
The Guardian
25-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Ukraine war briefing: Anti-corruption agencies endorse bill restoring their independence
The Ukrainian anti-corruption body, Nabu, said a new bill submitted to parliament on Thursday 'restores all procedural powers and guarantees of independence of the Nabu and Sapo'. Nabu investigates corruption cases and Sapo prosecutes them. A Nabu statement said both agencies took part in the preparation of the new law and they urged the parliament 'to adopt the president's initiative … in its entirety as soon as possible. This will prevent threats to criminal proceedings brought by the Nabu and the Sapo.' The EU welcomed Volodymyr Zelenskyy's move to reinstate the independence of the anti-corruption agencies after the shock adoption this week of a bill that stripped their autonomy. After protests on the streets and from international allies of Ukraine, the Ukrainian president said the further bill would ensure the rule of law and the independence of the anti-corruption agencies. An EU spokesperson said: 'We provide significant financial support to Ukraine and this is conditional to progress and transparency, judicial reform and democratic governance.' Those points were reinforced by European leaders with whom Zelenskyy consulted over the crisis, including Ursula von der Leyen, Friedrich Merz of Germany and the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer. There were tensions over the Ukraine war as EU officials met the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in Beijing on Thursday. Antonio Costa, the European Council president, said the EU officials discussed 'at length' their expectations for China to discourage Russia in its war against Ukraine. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, prior to the meeting said China was 'enabling Russia's war economy'. Xi told EU to 'properly handle differences and frictions … The current challenges facing Europe do not come from China.' A Russian attack killed three family members already displaced by the war, authorities announced on Thursday. The father, mother and son had fled to the village of Pidlyman in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine after Russian forces invaded their home town. A strike later on Kharkiv city wounded 33 people, including a 10-year-old girl, a 17-year-old boy and girl, the governor said. A separate Russian drone and missile barrage wounded seven people including a child in the central Ukrainian region of Cherkasy, emergency services said. The US state department on Thursday said it had approved military sales worth US$330m to Ukraine comprising $150m worth of maintenance, repair and overhaul capability for M109 self-propelled howitzers, and $180m to sustain air defences. The Pentagon said contractors involved would include BAE Systems, Allison Transmission, Daimler Truck North America, Sierra Nevada Corporation, Radionix and Systems Electronic Export. The US on Wednesday announced sales of $322m related to Hawk surface-to-air missiles and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. Reuters are reporting that an Indian company shipped $1.4m worth of an explosive used in missile warheads, rocket motors and bombs to Russia in December 2024 despite the threat of US sanctions, according to Indian customs data seen by the news agency. One Russian company listed as receiving the compound, known as HMX or octogen, was an explosives manufacturer, which Ukraine's SBU security service has linked to Moscow's military. An SBU official said Ukraine launched a drone attack in April against one of the company's factories. The US government has identified HMX/octogen as 'critical for Russia's war effort'. The US state department did not comment to Reuters on the specific shipments but said it had repeatedly communicated to India that companies doing military-related business with Russia were at risk of sanctions. However, under Donald Trump, Russia-related sanctions work has slowed to a trickle. India's foreign ministry said in a statement: 'India has been carrying out exports of dual-use items taking into account its international obligations on non-proliferation,' adding that such exports were subject to 'holistic assessment'.
