Reuters. Hundreds of Ukrainians protested near the presidential administration in central Kyiv late on Tuesday (July 22), against law curbing autonomy of anti-corruption agencies.
Bill passed earlier on Tuesday by the Ukrainian parliament granted the general prosecutor, appointed by the president, strict control over the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.
The vote drew sharp criticism from the heads of both agencies and a top EU official, and spurred the largest public protests since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Hundreds gathered in Kyiv to protest the law. Smaller actions taking place in several other cities.
"Veto the bill," organisers projected their demand on a central Kyiv building as crowds chanted slogans against the law.
The parliament's vote came a day after Kyiv's domestic security agency arrested two NABU officials on suspicion of ties to Russia and conducted sweeping searches into agency employees on other grounds. Critics and the two agencies said the crackdown went too far.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whose party holds a majority in parliament, approved the amendments late on Tuesday. The changes would allow the general prosecutor to transfer cases from the agencies and reassign prosecutors.
In his nightly video address, issued well after midnight, Zelenskiy said he had spoken to NABU chief Semen Kryvonos and other top prosecutors. Anti-corruption bodies, he said, would continue to function "but without any Russian influence. It all must be cleansed.
Kryvonos had urged Zelenskiy not to sign the fast-tracked bill, which he called an attempt to "destroy" Ukraine's anti-corruption infrastructure.
