Zelenskyy Signs Law Weakening Ukraine Anti-Corruption Watchdogs Amid Nationwide Protests

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a controversial law that significantly weakens the independence of the country's main anti-corruption agencies, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO). The legislation transfers broad investigative powers and control to the prosecutor general, a political appointee, allowing reassignment and closure of corruption cases, which critics argue undermines a decade of anti-corruption reforms and risks enabling autocracy. Zelenskyy justified the law by citing the need to eliminate Russian influence within these institutions, promising the prosecution of dormant corruption cases, but failed to clarify how the law would achieve this. The law's passage triggered widespread protests across major Ukrainian cities, with demonstrators expressing fears that it betrays the pro-democracy ideals that fueled the 2014 Euromaidan uprising and the ongoing resistance against Russian aggression. Anti-corruption advocates and legal experts condemned the law as an attack on prosecutorial independence and warned it grants excessive power to the prosecutor general, effectively dismantling key institutional safeguards. Despite public outcry and calls from NABU and SAPO leaders to veto the bill, Zelenskyy's office remained largely silent for hours after its enactment, further fueling criticism.