Ukrainians took to the streets in protest after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a bill targeting the country’s anti-corruption agencies.
The new law puts two key bodies under the prosecutor-general’s control, a move critics said would reduce their independence: The newly appointed official is a Zelenskyy loyalist. Zelenskyy said the agencies had fallen under “Russian influence.”
The European Union expressed concern that the move would reduce transparency and jeopardize the bloc’s financial assistance for Kyiv, while protesters said it was at odds with a decade of pro-democracy, anti-corruption efforts carried out since the downfall of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.
It’s another sign that, after years of national unity, Ukraine’s domestic politics have returned to the fore, as Carnegie Politika noted last year.