Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has reversed his attempt to seize sweeping powers over the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, stating that he heard the concerns of his people and Western backers. He has now introduced a law that he said would guarantee their independence, and the agencies themselves said they were satisfied. Many Ukrainians are eager to point out that this open-eared approach is a drastic change from past administrations that dismissed or even silenced such concerns. However, some fear the damage may already be done.
For Zelenskyy, this is a serious crisis of legitimacy. He was elected in 2019 promising to root out the corruption that has plagued Ukraine since it gained modern independence in 1991. The public fury over his quixotic power grab has led to thousands of protests outside the legislature in Kyiv. Zelenskyy has at least undone the immediate machinery that so worried observers, domestic and foreign.
What hurts Ukrainians is the perception that the government could so easily undo the hard-fought progress won during the Maidan uprising of 2014 that ousted the Kremlin-backed leader Viktor Yanukovych. Mykhailo Sobaliev, an 18-year-old student, says that his father was the head of the parliament’s anti-graft committee and was directly involved in establishing the two bodies whose power Zelenskyy’s law sought to curb.
Many Ukrainians see this civic surge as intrinsically linked with the attritional violence on the front lines. The war has become “hard — very hard,” and many Ukrainians feel “incredible pride” when they see this number of people protesting and fighting for their country.
The opprobrium was far from just domestic, with leaders across Europe voicing their disquiet and urging Zelenskyy to rethink. Others fear his standing has been undermined for the longer term.
