Kyiv: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that he’s sending a new anti-corruption bill to Ukraine’s Parliament on Thursday, in a further attempt to defuse tensions after he approved changes to graft laws that brought a public outcry and sharp criticism from the European Union. Opponents of the contentious law passed by lawmakers and approved by Zelenskyy earlier this week said it stripped Ukraine’s anti-corruption watchdogs of their independence by granting the government more oversight of their work.
Zelenskyy said it was needed to speed up investigations, ensure more convictions and remove “Russian influence” from the fight against corruption, though he didn’t provide examples of Russian meddling. In an abrupt change of course on Thursday, Zelenskyy unexpectedly said that he had drawn up a new draft bill on corruption that “guarantees the real strengthening of the law and order system in Ukraine”.
“The most important thing is real tools, no Russian connections, and the independence of the (watchdogs),” he said in a Telegram post.
The declaration appeared to bow to recent pressure that threatened to undermine public trust in Ukraine’s leaders after more than three years of fighting Russia’s full-scale invasion. The protests haven’t called for Zelenskyy’s ouster, but they are the first major anti-government demonstrations since the war began. “It is important that we maintain unity,” Zelenskyy said in his post. The announcement also left some questions unanswered. Zelenskyy had said Wednesday that he met with the heads of Ukraine’s key anti-corruption and security agencies and gave them two weeks to make recommendations on how the graft law could be improved before he presented another bill to Parliament.
Despite that assurance, further street protests were scheduled for Thursday evening.
The new pronouncement also left unclear whether Zelenskyy intended to revoke the law that he approved earlier in the week after Parliament had passed it.