For the first time since the Russian invasion in Ukraine started in more than three years, mass protests have been held against president Volodymyr Zelensky, after Ukraine's Parliament approved a bill that grants the prosecutor general full oversight of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), two anti-corruption agencies.
The result of this law, quickly approved on Tuesday thanks to Zelensky's absolute majority, will reduce the authorities of the two bodies as it gives bigger control to the government, a move that will make push away the dream of joining the European Union. The EU has said that Ukraine needs to implement strong measures anti-corruption, and this law, giving more control to the government (the prosecutor is appointed by the president) undermines previous efforts.
That is why hundreds of people gathered at Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro, and Odesa on Tuesday to protest. NABU and SAPO, created after the Euromaidan revolution and the Revolution of Dignity in 2014 precisely to fight corruption in Ukraine's government, will be useless now, the protesters say. One of them carried a poster saying "We chose Europe, not autocracy".
In the daily televised message of Tuesday night, Zelensky said that the law was made to clear the two agencies of "Russian influence" and assured that both agencies would still work. On Monday, Ukrainian authorities arrested two of its employees on suspicion of working for Russian special services.