Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has reversed his attempt to seize sweeping powers over the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor\u2019s Office, stating that he heard the concerns of his people and Western backers. He has now introduced a law that he said would guarantee their independence, and the agencies themselves said they were satisfied. Many Ukrainians are eager to point out that this open-eared approach is a drastic change from past administrations that dismissed or even silenced such concerns. However, some fear the damage may already be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Zelenskyy, this is a serious crisis of legitimacy. He was elected in 2019 promising to root out the corruption that has plagued Ukraine since it gained modern independence in 1991. The public fury over his quixotic power grab has led to thousands of protests outside the legislature in Kyiv. Zelenskyy has at least undone the immediate machinery that so worried observers, domestic and foreign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What hurts Ukrainians is the perception that the government could so easily undo the hard-fought progress won during the Maidan uprising of 2014 that ousted the Kremlin-backed leader Viktor Yanukovych. Mykhailo Sobaliev, an 18-year-old student, says that his father was the head of the parliament\u2019s anti-graft committee and was directly involved in establishing the two bodies whose power Zelenskyy\u2019s law sought to curb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many Ukrainians see this civic surge as intrinsically linked with the attritional violence on the front lines. The war has become \u201chard \u2014 very hard,\u201d and many Ukrainians feel \u201cincredible pride\u201d when they see this number of people protesting and fighting for their country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n