Brussels – As the negotiations with Russia have stalled, Volodymyr Zelensky is facing an unprecedented wave of popular outrage at home. A crackdown on anti-corruption agencies, described by the president’s critics as a move to further centralise power in his own hands, quickly turned into a brutal political boomerang. In the end, under increasing domestic and international pressure, the president was forced to take a clamorous step backwards to defuse a crisis of legitimacy with unpredictable outcomes. And now everyone, allies and opponents alike, are lying in wait for him.
In the last few days, Volodymyr Zelensky has ended up at the centre of the storm for having promulgated on Tuesday evening (22 July) the controversial Law 12414,approved a few hours earlierby the Verkhovna Rada, the single-chamber parliament in Kyiv. Some speak of “fatal error” by the Ukrainian president, while for the citizens who took to the streets two days in a row, for the first time since the beginning of the Russian invasion,
openly defying the bans imposed by martial law in force since 2022, the head of state has passed the “point of no return“.
On the pretext of countering alleged infiltration by Kremlin spies, the new rules have essentially stripped the two main anti-corruption bodies—the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Office of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor (SAPO), created in 2015 as part of the post-Euromaidan reforms—of their independence, bringing them back under the direct control of the Attorney General, a presidentially appointed figure.
Ultimately, it seems that the internal and external pressures that have accumulated over the past few hours have prompted Zelensky to reconsider his actions before the situation escalated out of control. Yesterday morning (July 23), he met with the heads of anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies, promising at the end of the meeting to present a “joint plan” to renovate the structures that have come under the government’s scrutiny, pulling them out of Russian infiltration and improving their effectiveness.
Late this afternoon, the president announced that he had submitted a new bill to the Rada aimed at “preserving the independence of anti-corruption institutions.” The text, he argues, is “well balanced” and “ensures a real strengthening of the law enforcement system in Ukraine,” as well as a “reliable protection” of the latter from “any Russian influence or interference,” ensuring “the independence of NABU and SAPO.”
I’ve just approved the text of a draft bill that guarantees real strengthening of Ukraine’s law enforcement system, independence of anti-corruption agencies, and reliable protection of the law enforcement system against any Russian influence or interference. The text is…
– Volodymyr Zelenskyy (@ZelenskyyUa) July 24, 2025
“It is important to maintain unity“, emphasised Zelensky in an attempt to heal the rift he himself opened. According to Ruslan Stefanchuk (the president’s party colleague), the provision could be examined within a month, i.e. before the official resumption of work in the Chamber, which is technically in summer recess until next September.
The NABU stated that it was convinced the new rules would “restore all procedural powers and guarantees of independence” for itself and the SAPO. Positive comments also came from the Anti-Corruption Action Centre (AntAC), an NGO led by Vitaliy Shabunin, another key figure in recent events. The new law, reads a note from the organisation, is the result of the dedication of Ukrainians “who in recent days have demonstrated to the authorities that they will not allow their European future to be destroyed.”
But it was not only Ukrainians—from the parliamentary oppositions to the military in the trenches, via activists and NGOs—who took to the barricades to call the leadership in Kyiv back to the promises of democratic renewal written in the blood of the over 100 victims of the Euromaidan, the popular uprising of 2013-2014 (otherwise known as the Revolution of Dignity) that led to the ousting of the pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s inexorable rapprochement to the Euro-Atlantic community and the parallel departure from Moscow’s influence.
For days now, an increasing number of international organisations and human rights associations have been sounding the alarm about the danger of an authoritarian slide. Among the statements of condemnation that have flocked against Law 12414, there’s the one of Human Rights Watch, which said that it “risks weakening the democratic foundations of Ukraine“, and the one of the Council of Europe, which has “expressed deep concern” about recent developments.
The rebukes also came from Kyiv’s Western allies, on whose support the resistance to the Kremlin’s neo-imperialist invasion depends. From the United States to the European Union, critical voices have consistently pointed out the risk that the regulations in question would undermine a decade of democratic achievements, as well as the progress made in recent years under Russian bombs, all the more commendable given the circumstances.
The president of the EU executive, Ursula von der Leyen, had a telephone conversation with Zelensky, from whom she “asked for explanations” on the adoption of the legislation. According to the background, harsh words towards the Kyiv government also came from the Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos, who recalled that the path to joining the twelve-star club can be interrupted for precisely this kind of violations of the rule of law, as exemplified by the case of Georgia.
Answering journalists’ questions, Berlaymont spokespersons confirmed that Brussels had expressed “grave concerns about the steps taken” by the Rada and the president himself, also anticipating appreciation for the Ukrainian authorities’ change of pace even before this materialised in practice. The EU’s financial assistance, they reiterated, is conditional on respect for the rule of law and democratic guarantees, but stated that they did not want to “speculate on forthcoming developments”, emphasising that it is now up to the government in Kyiv “to implement the new measures.”
According to some reports, the President of the European Council, António Costa, and the French head of state, Emmanuel Macron, allegedly attempted unsuccessfully to dissuade Zelensky from enacting the law in question on Tuesday. Indeed, the ambassadors of the G7 nations in Kyiv were reportedly confined to a room without telephones for hours as events unfolded in the Ukrainian capital, to prevent them from informing their respective chancelleries in real-time.
In reality, according to the critics of the president and his government, the authoritarian drift had already begun some time ago. The “NABU case” that has just erupted in Zelensky’s hands would only represent the tip of the iceberg, the latest act in a broad and systematic attack on the democratic foundations of the Ukrainian state that has been going on for months. Under the guise of war, security protocols and martial law, the president and his magic circle are increasingly centralising their powers and those of the executive at the expense of parliament and independent agencies. Now, allies and opponents alike are lying in wait for Zelensky and his men, knowing that the Ukrainian leader cannot afford a new misstep.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
