As a democratic state, Ukraine is under attack from two sources. The first and most obvious adversary is Moscow, which has long wanted to return the country to the days when it was a puppet of the Kremlin, a mere Russian satellite.
But it could be argued that there is another insidious and corrosive adversary from within – the country’s own semi-autocratic leadership.
Opposition lawmakers and civil society activists have been arguing this for months, as Ukraine’s presidential administration has increasingly seized power, weakened other governing and regional institutions – including the country’s parliament – while intimidating critics in an attempt to silence them with hooliganism campaigns or by labeling them as Russian puppets.
The extent of this democratic backsliding, critics say, became clearer this week after President Volodymyr Zelensky dismantled Ukraine’s two key anti-corruption agencies, which had focused on senior government officials. The move sparked the first nationwide street protests since Russia's full-scale invasion began in 2022.
In Kiev, hundreds of protesters gathered near the presidential complex, while crowds of veterans, active-duty soldiers and civilians gathered in dozens of other cities, including Lviv and the frontline cities of Odessa and Dnipro. Despite the rallies, Zelensky approved a new law that will give the politically appointed prosecutor general significant power over the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP).
US President Donald Trump, a longtime arch-enemy of Zelensky, may have been an unwilling ally as the Ukrainian leader has targeted his country's anti-corruption campaigners.
"He knows the US won't pressure him," said a former minister of Zelensky's, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals. The decision to purge the agencies was the result of "the realization that NABU will continue to get closer to people in the inner circle of the government", they said, citing NABU's land-grabbing investigation into former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov as something that would terrify Zelensky's people.
"This is the logical culmination of tightening the screws at home. The new narrative is simple: You're either with Zelensky or you're a Russian agent," oppositionists commented.
According to Steve Bannon, former Trump chief strategist and host of the podcast War Room, Zelensky's decision to target anti-corruption agencies may have been smart. "He knows MAGA is trying to catch him stealing billions. "It's better for Marjorie Taylor Greene and the War Room to whine about corruption than to actually have an office and people there [who] he doesn't control to do something about it," he told POLITICO.
With public and EU pressure mounting on Zelensky, the Ukrainian leader appeared to offer a concession on Wednesday night, saying in his regular evening address that he would propose new legislation in response to the protesters' demands that would ensure that "all norms of independence of anti-corruption institutions will be in place."
What he meant remains unclear, and it will do little to quell public anger over the law he signed so quickly.
The two agencies in question were created in 2015 at the urging of the EU and other international partners, including the administration of then-US President Barack Obama. Washington and Brussels wanted to see how Ukraine was really tackling its deep-rooted and endemic corruption problem, and they pushed for the creation of anti-corruption bodies independent of the government, ones that would be powerful enough to investigate wrongdoing by senior officials and politically connected individuals.
But Law No. 12414, which Zelensky quickly signed after it passed the Verkhovna Rada with almost unprecedented speed, now strips NABU and SAP of that independence. Instead, it gives the Prosecutor General’s Office the power to issue orders to these agencies and redistribute their own prosecutor’s work, thereby removing safeguards that protect these agencies from undue political interference.
In his address on Tuesday night, Zelensky assured Ukrainians that he had no intention of undermining the work of either agency, suggesting that the changes were necessary to protect the agencies from Russian influence. "The anti-corruption infrastructure will work, but without Russian influence - it must be cleansed of that. And there must be more justice," he wrote online.
But neither he nor his powerful chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, who acts as co-president, have indicated how Moscow may have influenced either agency.
Lesya Vasylenko, an opposition lawmaker from the pro-European Golos party, called the dismantling of the anti-corruption structure “a bad decision. a wrong decision.” In an interview with POLITICO, she said, “I am very proud of the Ukrainians who took to the streets to stand up for what is right and for the kind of Ukraine that people really want.” But she also warned that “we are in a very difficult moment. The last thing we need is a revolution in the middle of a war.”
Of course, NABU and SAP officials view Law No. 12414 as a threat to their missions. "In fact, the anti-corruption infrastructure was destroyed with the votes of 263 members of parliament," said NABU chief Semyon Kryvonos at a joint press briefing with the anti-corruption prosecutor general, Oleksandr Klymenko. "The two independent institutions, NABU and SAP, are practically put in complete dependence." (According to local media, 18 of the deputies who voted in favor of the new law are suspects in NABU investigations.)
Despite Zelensky's assurances, this is also the opinion of EU officials and diplomats.
For months, they have complained, albeit always unofficially, about the democratic retreat of the Ukrainian president. They are unhappy with the purges and reshuffles that have led to the departure of more independent-minded ministers and officials from the government, such as former Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and the former head of Ukraine’s national electricity grid, Volodymyr Kudrytsky.
In Europe, they were uncomfortable with the dismissal of the commander of the armed forces, General Valery Zaluzhny — who had clashed with the president over both military strategy and the need to mobilize many more Ukrainians for the fight — not to mention the inexplicable power that Yermak seems to have over Zelensky. EU officials have also expressed concerns that the authorities’ search for traitors and Russian collaborators is turning into a political witch hunt aimed at silencing critics.
Until now, however, these concerns have been kept under wraps – largely to avoid providing a propaganda gift to Moscow or undermining Western support for Ukraine’s defense.
But this time is different.
In a social media post ahead of the new law’s approval, EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Coss said the situation would hurt Ukraine’s accession talks. "Independent bodies like NABU and SAP are essential for Ukraine’s path to the EU," she wrote. Meanwhile, the G7 ambassadors in Kiev issued a joint statement expressing their “serious concerns.”
Other senior officials in Brussels have also expressed their disapproval, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who has demanded answers from Zelensky.
So why are EU officials only now publicly expressing concerns about this monopolization of power?
Part of that is because the crackdown on anti-corruption agencies has been so egregious. According to both public records and anti-corruption officials who spoke to POLITICO on condition of anonymity, NABU has launched investigations into the actions of insiders and ministers in the president’s office. In addition, the presidential administration has begun to crack down on anti-corruption activists such as Vitaly Shabunin, head of the NGO "Anti-Corruption Center".
Shabunin warned on social media: "Zelensky's Prosecutor General will stop investigations against all the president's friends."
The ferocity of the public reaction has likely caught the attention of the EU as well. "Kyiv Independent", an English-language media outlet widely read in Brussels, headlined its sharply critical editorial: "Zelensky has just betrayed Ukrainian democracy - and all who fight for it."
Opposition MP Mykola Knyazhytsky also agrees that the reason for the agencies' dismantling was their targeting of insiders around the president. "NABU was close to indicting several extremely influential people, and the authorities urgently needed to defend themselves," he told POLITICO.
He also suspects that Zelensky and Yermak believed they could limit the agencies' independence and avoid punishment. "They believe that neither the EU nor the US will be as interested in the activities of anti-corruption bodies as before, since they will still be forced to support Ukraine," Knyazhytsky said.