KYIV: Ukraine’ passed a bill on Thursday to restore the independence of anti-corruption bodies, with 331 votes in favor and none against.
Under this bill, the powers that had been revoked through government amendments last month have now been reinstated. The amendments made on July 22 had granted a prosecutor appointed by the president the authority to transfer cases, raising concerns about transparency and justice.
A move demanded by Kyiv’s international partners as well as tens of thousands of enraged Ukrainians who protested on the streets of the capital and other cities.
The legislation passed by a comfortable margin, with 331 deputies voting in favor; a majority of 226 was needed. It was a stunning about-face by the same lawmakers who just last week had supported the previous law undermining the agencies, which drew public fury.
Demonstrators outside parliament cheered the result when it was announced. President Volodymyr Zelensky, who had been the target of the criticism, signed the law less than two hours after it was approved, according to a post by his office social media.
Even as the crowd reacted jubilantly, emergency workers in Kyiv were still responding to a brutal overnight drone and missile attack on Kyiv, killing at least 16 people and injuring more than 150. The strike, which hit residential buildings, was the latest in an unrelenting wave of Russian violence against Ukrainian cities.
Inaction by parliament on the anti-corruption issue would have prolonged the political instability in a country besieged by Russia’s continuing war.
The protests, the largest in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, erupted last week when parliament voted to place the two government agencies — the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) — under the supervision of the country’s prosecutor general, an ally of Zelensky.
The two bodies were created after Ukraine’s 2014 pro-democracy revolution and were seen as vital to the country’s bid to join the European Union. Critics said last week’s law would effectively neutralize them, and Zelensky quickly reversed course.
