According to according to “Ukrainian Pravda (UP), rallies and protests were held in Kiev, Odessa, Lviv, Dnipro and even Sumy, which is close to the war zone.
The scandalous law was voted for in the Verkhovna Rada on July 22 by 263 MPs from the parties Servant of the People, Opposition Platform – for Life and Batkivshchyna. It was immediately signed by Rada speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk. According to the UP, the Verkhovna Rada website shortly afterwards published information that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had also signed the law. After that, this information disappeared for a while, but then reappeared.
The scandalousness of the adopted law is that it almost completely deprives the main anti-corruption bodies – the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) – of their independence.
In Europe, the events surrounding the adoption of this law have caused serious concern and bewilderment. First of all, the EU has invested a lot of money and effort in the “fight against corruption” in Ukraine, seeking the independence of the NABU and the SAP. Second, the adoption of the law was preceded by an active campaign by the Security Service of Ukraine and the Prosecutor-General’s Office against these two anti-corruption structures.
As noted in material Euronews, on July 21, the SBU conducted a series of large-scale searches in the offices of the NABU. They concerned 15 employees of the Bureau, most of whom are accused of committing various traffic accidents, and some – in possible ties with Russia. It is noteworthy that the searches took place without a court order.
The NABU rejects all suspicions, as many Ukrainians do not believe in “spyomania”. But they believe in corruption in the upper echelons of the Ukrainian government. That is why they came out to protest.
Both in Ukraine and in Europe, many are convinced that this is an internal struggle in the upper echelons of the Ukrainian government. It is also about the desire to shield high-ranking officials from the entourage of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (and there are opinions that the president himself) from investigations into corruption cases.
Transparency International said that the searches of the NABU offices conducted without court authorization indicate “massive pressure” of the Ukrainian authorities on the anti-corruption fighters. “These actions appear to be aimed at coercively obtaining information and influencing the course of investigations against high-ranking officials. Transparency International Ukraine publicly condemns such pressure on anti-corruption bodies as unacceptable,” Euronews quoted the organization’s statement as saying.
The indictment of one of the most active public fighters against corruption, Vitaliy Shabunin, who had previously announced a number of high-profile revelations, on charges of fraud and evasion of military service, also added fuel to the fire.
Against this backdrop, the G7 ambassadors in Kiev issued a joint statement in which they expressed their extreme concern about the situation and their intention to discuss it with the Ukrainian government.
