22 hours ago
15
DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,
Ukraine’s government faced pressure from protesters and foreign backers after attempt to take away power from agencies.
Published On 31 Jul 2025
Ukraine’s parliament has voted to restore the independence of two key anti-corruption agencies, moving to defuse the country’s biggest political crisis since Russia’s invasion.
Lawmakers on Thursday voted 331 to 0 in favour of the bill, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy submitted last week following pressure from thousands of protesters and top European officials.
The measure now goes to Zelenskyy for a signature.
Ukrainians had reacted angrily to amendments pushed through parliament on July 22 by Zelenskyy’s ruling party that gave the president’s hand-picked general prosecutor the power to transfer cases away from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) and reassign prosecutors.
The decision led to some of the biggest protests held in Ukraine since the 2022 Russian invasion began, with thousands taking to the streets of Kyiv. Protesters continued to gather even after Zelenskyy had announced that he would roll back the amendments, and were outside parliament on Thursday as legislators voted, bursting into applause after the bill passed.
“Everyone is a winner, but first and foremost, democratic Ukraine is the winner,” Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, wrote on social media.
Speaking in parliament before the vote, opposition MP Yaroslav Yurchyshyn said that Ukrainians had stopped the government “one step from the abyss” of autocracy.
Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from outside of the parliament building in Kyiv, said that there was a sense of relief among protesters after the “largest political crisis” Zelenskyy has faced since the war began.
“The last couple of weeks have been a huge embarrassment to President Zelenskyy and his cabinet,” Stratford said. “Lots of questions are being asked about… why he changed the law in the first place.”
Stratford noted that it was not just public anger that had forced Zelenskyy to reverse the decision, but “also a huge amount of pressure from Ukraine’s backers” who were shocked and concerned at the decision, and hints from the European Union that some funding to Ukraine may be withdrawn, and that Ukraine was jeopardising its bid for EU membership.
The initial decision to take away power from the agencies was justified by Zelenskyy because of fears that the bodies had been corrupted by Russia.
“But if you speak to MPs… they will tell you that there was concern… that these investigation bodies were closing in around some individuals within the [government’s] inner circle,” said Stratford, who added that there had been raids targeting members of the anti-corruption agencies the night before the initial amendments taking away their power were passed.
