With a failed attempt to take Ukrainian anti-corruption bodies’ independence, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has risked a new ’Orange Revolution’ in his country.
The fact that Zelenskyy has tried to stop anti-corruption agencies gathering data and investigating Ukraine’s top political circles signals that, despite long years of negotiations with the European Union and a series of generous gestures by the top bureaucrats in Brussels to admit Ukraine into the bloc on fast track, Ukraine’s President has understood literally nothing from European politics. Moreover, with his recent moves, he presented hard evidence on his own incompatibility with the EU.
What motives can be behind his scandalous measures and what consequences should be taken into account in light of the scandal? These are our questions today.
A ten-day micro-crisis with long-term consequences for Ukraine’s EU integration
It took Zelenskyy less than a week to make it clear not only to the EU but also to his own people that he does not really differ from his authoritarian and deeply corrupt predecessors. With his hasty actions aimed at making Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies dependent on the decisions of the Prosecutor General, President of Ukraine has brought his war-torn country to the brink of internal crisis. It is about Ukraine, where citizens have so far heroically defended their homeland against Russian aggression without hesitation. Neglecting all this, within a week, Zelenskyy has almost managed to provoke another ’Orange Revolution’ in his country, this time aimed directly at him.
The fact that Zelenskyy did not take into consideration the possibility that his actions would cause such a backlash both in Ukraine and abroad indicates that he is losing his sense of reality, while his closest confidants, who may be behind the measures, including Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak, simply did not expect that people would turn against the president while the country is at war. Considering the developments, there is reason to believe that Zelenskyy and his inner circle may have simply overlooked the fact that very similar reasons led to the Euromaidan uprising and the downfall of President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.
As for international criticism, it should be noted that the dismantling of the independence of National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) crossed the EU’s red lines which, surprisingly and sadly, was a surprise for the President and his aids. (For your information: the NABU is tasked with investigating government corruption and the SAPO is responsible for overseeing criminal investigations launched by the NABU.)
To save the situation, in explanation of the aforementioned measures, Zelenskyy criticised the efficiency of Ukraine’s anti-corruption infrastructure and cited Russian influence for curtailing NABU’s powers. In particular, he said the reforms were designed to clear Ukraine from Russian infiltration. (Ukraine’s security service – SBU – launched a series of raids targeting NABU agents it alleges colluded with Russia.) In light of the events that took place in the meantime, it looks like this was just political marketing, an excuse to take action.
A very Ukrainian story which is much more complicated than anyone could imagine
In the case of Ukraine, the transfer of Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies under the supervision of the Prosecutor General’s Office was undoubtedly a politically motivated move.
It is worth mentioning here that the same MPs who voted a week earlier to dismantle the independence of the anti-corruption agencies made a complete U-turn a few days later during a new vote. Some MPs even defended the controversial vote last week.
’NABU and SAP are organs of political pressure on Ukraine’s government from outside. We are not a country that can be ruled by foreign powers as a dog on a leash,’ former Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko said.
To show how complex the situation is, it should also be pointed out that many current MPs are subjects of NABU investigations. According to Politico, the agency has charged 71 current and former MPs with corruption, 42 of them during the period between 2022 and 2025. Thirty-one of the charged MPs still sit in the Ukrainian parliament.
As another angle of this story, it is also worth remembering that President Zelenskyy has recently initiated and implemented a government reshuffle that removed the whole EU integration team, including deputy PM responsible for Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna – one of Ukraine’s most successful negotiators -, which undermined the prospects of opening EU negotiations.
On top of all this, Ukrainian investigating journalist state that, the President of Ukraine and his team attacked the NABU and the SAPO due to a large-scale corruption case launched by the NABU against Diaspora Minister Oleksii Chernyshov in May. They also claim that a Zelenskyy loyalist new prosecutor general, Ruslan Kravchenko was appointed to rescue Chernyshov by transferring his case from NABU to a body controlled by the President’s Office.
’The key ’producer’ behind this ’project’, as with all other sensitive decisions, was the head of the President’s Office, Andrii Yermak.’, Ukrainian Pravda says.
Criticism from Brussels and the US forced Zelenskyy to U-turn
Following the adopted measures to dismantle the independence of the anti-corruption agencies, top officials of the EU said that, with recent measures, a decade of anti-corruption efforts have been destroyed in Ukraine.
European Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, criticised the first bill’s adoption saying that ’The dismantling of key safeguards protecting NABU’s independence is a serious step back,’ adding that the two bodies were essential for Ukraine’s EU path. In addition, Kos said, the European Union views the passing of the law as a setback in implementing the seven European Commission recommendations that were a condition for Ukraine’s candidate status.
During the crisis, Zelenskyy has received another painful criticism from the United States.
’Huge protests erupt in Kyiv against Ukrainian President Zelenskyy as he is a dictator and refuses to make a peace deal and end the war. Good for the Ukrainian people! Throw him out of office! And America must STOP funding and sending weapons!!!’, long-time supporter of Donald Trump, US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X.
Her comment was immediately labelled as disinformation by the Ukrainian government.
After several days of protests across Ukraine, including Kyiv, Odessa, Lviv and pressure from the European Commission and EU member states, Zelenskyy submitted a new bill that returned the independence of the anti-corruption bodies, European Commission President von der Leyen said, this was ’a welcome step’. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas considers that the fact that Kyiv passed a new bill shows ’Ukraine’s resolve to quickly get back on course when European democratic values are at stake.’
So why do all this?
Considering that this question should not remain unanswered, we try to give explanation to what happened in Ukraine.
Given that it was a well-planned attack against Ukraine’s very successful anti-corruption bodies which were just in the middle of a large-scale corruption case against one of the ministers, the attack on NABU and SAPO has undoubtably been evidence that Zelenskyy and his team abused their special wartime authority. However, it is highly possible that the President’s Office felt untouchable, assuming that Brussels would refrain from any open criticism during wartime, but their calculation has failed. In addition, they forgot that Ukrainians hate corruption above all else.
Disappointing as it is, it should be established that, the restoration of the anti-corruption agencies independence at the end of the day was not motivated by any internal (moral and other) factors, but rather by external pressure. In addition, just like in the past, Ukraine’s Security Service, the SBU once again is no more than a political tool. In light of this, Zelenskyy’s statement about Russian influence over Ukrainian anti-corruption bodies was a mere lie which served just an excuse to attack and, eventually, keep the power, at any price.
However, the attack on corruption watchdogs showed Zelenskyy’s real face to the EU. In light of the latest developments, some European officials are sounding the alarm that any potential backsliding on rule-of-law and anti-corruption reforms could hurt Kyiv’s bid to join the bloc. Despite Zelenskyy said he ’does not want to risk anything’ concerning Ukraine’s European path, he himself undermined this path.
After all this, there is only one question left unanswered in Brussels, namely why should Ukraine be admitted in the EU when President Zelenskyy is ready to take any steps to preserve his power and protect his team, disregarding core values of the EU and jeopardizing Ukraine’s European integration…?