Reuters. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday (July 24) submitted draft legislation to restore the independence of Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies, reversing course after an outburst of public criticism.
Measures enacted earlier this week that established greater control by the prosecutor general, a political appointee, over the anti-corruption bureau NABU and the specialized prosecution unit SAPO had fuelled rare wartime protests and had thrown Kyiv's EU accession bid into question.
The agencies said they had been involved in drafting the bill and urged parliament to hold a vote as soon as possible.
Zelenskiy, whose image as a tireless leader of the three-year-old war against Russia's invasion has been tarnished by the controversy, said the text of the new bill is "well-balanced."
On Monday (July 21), security forces arrested two anti-corruption officials on suspicion of ties to Russia and launched sweeping searches of other employees.
Critics had decried the move to give a Zelenskiy-appointed prosecutor control over the agencies, saying it looked like political pressure on the agencies.
After the law was adopted, Zelenskiy faced a severe backlash, with thousands of people joining protests across the country, even though public gatherings are restricted by martial law.
In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy later said the bill had been discussed not only with the agencies concerned, but also with Ukrainian legal experts and officials from Ukraine's Western allies. The text, he said, would be presented to Western experts whose comments on the legislation were welcome.
Zelenskiy also said the reaction of Ukrainians who joined protests in major cities was understandable.
