As the war with Russia grinds on, society mobilises to oppose the Zelensky government’s ‘reform’ bill

~ Nikita Ivansky ~

Thousands of people have taken to the streets around Ukraine to protest against a new bill that would remove the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO). On 22 July Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky signed the bill, which critics argue will transform the anti-corruption offices into ‘decorative institutions’ under the full control of the Prosecutor’s Office.

Anarchists from the “Direct Action” student union and other groups joined the protests in Lviv and Kyiv. “While most people survive on meagre salaries, someone is again rewriting the laws for themselves in order to remove inconvenient detectives, close the cases of top corrupt officials, and manage prosecutors as personal subordinates”, said the group. It described Bill 12414 as “an attempt to strengthen the authoritarian vertical in wartime” and called instead for institutions that are “transparent, horizontal, and controlled by the people, not by the merchants of power”.

According to one protester, the bill is a “blatant abuse of power and an attempt to strengthen the authoritarian hierarchy in wartime. The problem of corruption does not lie with individual ‘bad’ officials, but with the system itself. It cannot be fixed by yet another round of reforms from above. Corruption can only be curbed when institutions are transparent, horizontal, and accountable to the people, not a handful of powerful individuals”.

Despite the myth that the Russian invasion has rallied people into a patriotic fervour, Ukrainian society has continued to organise in its struggle against the state. In the background, anarchists have been organising on the military front by various groups while organisations engage in political struggles in relatively peaceful territories.