A law rushed through Ukraine’s parliament is now at the center of a growing political storm. While thousands of people have been protesting the law on the streets of Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro, and Odesa, opposition leaders are pushing for its repeal, and legal experts are warning it effectively dismantles hard-won anti-corruption safeguards.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the controversial Bill No. 12414 into law on Tuesday night, July 23, effectively gutting the country’s top anti-corruption agencies – the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) of their power to investigate corruption crimes independently.

According to Yaroslav Zheleznyak, a lawmaker with the opposition Holos Party, opponents of 12414 are taking parallel approaches.

Repeal it in Constitutional Court

“We’re preparing a constitutional motion,” Zheleznyak wrote in a Wednesday. “It will take some time to ensure it’s solid and well-crafted. There are precedents where laws have been repealed due to procedural violations – and in this case, the authorities pushed the bill through parliament in an especially underhanded way, so we have plenty to work with. Next, we’ll start collecting the 45 signatures needed. I don’t think it’ll be easy, but we’ll make sure the public knows exactly who refuses to sign. The court process is long, but it’s one of the most reliable paths we have.”

As evidence for the motion, Zheleznyak pointed to what he described as blatant procedural violations during the bill’s passage through parliament:

“At 1:37 p.m., the Rada votes on the draft law to dismantle the anti-corruption infrastructure. I immediately raised a procedural violation and submitted a blocking resolution. But just one minute later, at 1:38 p.m., they pushed through a vote for ‘urgent signing.’ I rushed to the office to submit the resolution… but it wasn’t even registered. And do you know why? Because by 1:50 p.m. – within 12 minutes – while everyone was still in the chamber – the law had somehow been signed in the secretariat of the Law Enforcement Committee, by the committee secretary, by the committee chair (who, by the way, was away on a trip), reviewed by Rada legal staff, printed, formatted on official stationery, delivered to the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada – and signed. This isn’t just turbo-mode – but super-mega-turbo-blitzkrieg-to-protect-top-level-corrupt-officials mode.”

Repeal it legislatively

Inna Sovsun, another lawmaker with the Holos Party, registered a draft law in parliament to repeal 12414, calling it “the only quick way to reverse the situation.”

“My team prepared it overnight,” Sovsun wrote in a post Wednesday. “This morning, we already sent it out for signatures to other MPs. Document card 1947711. Registration number 170768.”

Sovsun urged her followers to share her post and urge their deputies to sign the draft law.

The third way that 12414’s opponents aim to fight the law is by appealing to Ukraine’s international partners.

Appeal to international partners

Zheleznyak wrote that he and others opposed to the law would spend Wednesday communicating the law’s consequences to international agencies – particularly those that provide Kyiv with funding, as, according to Zheleznyak, in some cases, “especially for the IMF, the EU, and the World Bank,” Ukraine’s support has been contingent on it having independent anti-corruption agencies.

Zelensky

Meanwhile, in a Facebook post, Zelensky said that on Wednesday, he gathered the heads of Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies, along with the heads of SAPO and NABU, and reported that they had held a “much-needed meeting” and “a frank and constructive conversation.”

“We all share a common enemy: the Russian occupiers. And defending the Ukrainian state requires a strong enough law enforcement and anti-corruption system – one that ensures a real sense of justice,” Zelensky wrote.

According to the president, the agency heads agreed that in the next week, there would be in-depth working meetings on a joint action plan and by the following week, a finished joint action plan.

“We all hear what society is saying. We see what people expect from state institutions – ensured justice and the effective functioning of each institution. We discussed the necessary administrative and legislative decisions that would strengthen the work of each institution, resolve existing contradictions, and eliminate threats. Everyone will work together. At the political level, we will provide support,” he wrote.

NABU

However, NABU’s statement after the meeting was not optimistic. The agency emphasized that the key legislative restriction on their independence remains in place.

“The legislative changes adopted the day before significantly restrict the independence of NABU and SAPO. This was emphasized by the heads of both institutions during a meeting initiated by the President’s Office. As a result of these changes, NABU and SAPO have been stripped of the guarantees that previously allowed them to effectively carry out their duties and functions in the fight against high-level corruption. To restore their full and independent operation, clear and decisive legislative action is needed to reinstate the guarantees repealed by parliament,” the statement reads.

The Babel news outlet conducted a detailed analysis of 12414’s legislative changes together with lawyers and concluded that as a result of the amendments, the Prosecutor General gains the authority to take over any case from any prosecutor, including from NABU and SAPO.

“This makes the Prosecutor General the Ultimate Boss,” the outlet writes.

Such powers were previously available to the Prosecutor General long ago – before the prosecution reform of 2015 during the presidency of the now-exiled Viktor Yanukovych who fled from office after protests on the Maidan became the Revolution of Dignity.

In comments beneath Zelensky’s photo from Wednesday’s meeting, many called on him to repeal the law and restore the independence of NABU and SAPO – Ukraine’s only institutions to have effectively pursued corruption cases against sitting high-ranking officials.

Protests were planned to continue for a second day Wednesday, with demonstrators planning to again gather in the centers of Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro, and Odesa.