Trust in Zelenskyy diminished even after reversal of law that fuelled anti-graft protests
Kyiv: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy quickly reversed course last month on a law that would have curbed the independence of the country’s anti-corruption watchdogs after widespread protests that threatened the stability of his leadership for the first time since Russia’s invasion.
It’s unlikely that the damage to the president’s image can be changed as easily.
Zelenskyy’s reversal followed years of public discontent that simmered around his inner circle, some of whom have been accused of corruption. But Ukrainians have been largely deferential toward their president in wartime, trusting him to lead the fight against the Kremlin and even acquiescing in the suspension of some civil liberties.
The protests showed the limits of that goodwill after the public concluded that Zelenskyy’s fast-tracking of the law was a step too far.
“People will support Zelenskyy in whatever he does as it relates to the war. But the previous level of trust “that he will carry out everything correctly, without outside interests, has been damaged,” said Tetiana Shevchuk, a board member of the Ukrainian nonprofit Anti-Corruption Action Centre, which fights graft. Zelenskyy “will need to work hard to get it back.”
A Gallup poll released Thursday found that about two-thirds of Ukrainians approve of the way Zelenskyy is handling his job as president, down from 84 per cent in 2022. Another poll released Wednesday by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found a similar pattern, with trust in Zelenskyy down from just before the war started and a sharp decrease since after the signing of the law.
Both polls were conducted in July and excluded adults living in regions of the country that were not controlled by Ukraine or were under entrenched Russian control.
The initial decision to sign the proposal hurt Zelenskyy’s standing among Ukrainians, loyal lawmakers and Western allies, including one foreign minister who told The Associated Press that his willingness to backtrack on the law would help restore “lost trust.”
Zelenskyy says bill was designed to root out Russian influence Zelenskyy sparked the outcry when he
signed measures to reduce the powers of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, or NABU, and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, or SAPO.
Zelenskyy said the initial bill was meant to root out Russian influence in those agencies, but he did not provide evidence to support the claim.
The bill became a law so quickly that lawmakers said they barely had time to read it. For the Ukrainian people, patience wore thin.
From the outset of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, the public tolerated restrictions such as martial law and
postponed elections. But
critics also argued that the consolidation of the president’s authority undermined the country’s democratic institutions.
