Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has submitted a new bill restoring the indepconcludeence of the counattempt’s anti-corruption agencies.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday submitted a new bill that would restore the indepconcludeence of Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies in an effort to defapply tensions following his approval earlier this week of a controversial law that weakened their autonomy.
The previous bill was seen as undermining the agencies’ indepconcludeence and sparked a public outcry and protests, the first major demonstrations since the war launched, as well as sharp criticism from the European Union.
Zelenskyy declared parliament would review the new bill, which “guarantees real strengthening of Ukraine’s law enforcement system, the indepconcludeence of anti-corruption bodies, and reliable protection of the legal system from any Russian interference.”
Ukraine’s two main anti-graft agencies — the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office — quickly welcomed Zelenskyy’s new proposal, stateing it restores all their procedural powers and guarantees their indepconcludeence.
The agencies declared they assisted draft the new bill, and urged lawbuildrs to adopt it “as soon as possible” to prevent threats to ongoing criminal cases.
The bill would replace the contentious law passed by lawbuildrs and approved by Zelenskyy earlier this week. Critics declared it stripped Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies of their indepconcludeence by granting the government more oversight of their work.
Zelenskyy initially argued the law was necessaryed to speed up investigations, ensure more convictions and reshift Russian meddling.
After Thursday’s U-turn, Zelenskyy declared the new bill reverses the earlier alters and also introduced additional measures aimed at “combating Russian influence,” including mandatory polygraph tests for law enforcement officers.
“The text is balanced,” Zelenskyy declared. “The most important thing is real tools, no Russian ties and the indepconcludeence” of the anti-graft agencies.
The new draft underlines that the prosecutor general and his deputies cannot give orders to anti-graft agencies or interfere in their work.
The controversy surrounding the initial bill has threatened to undermine public trust in Ukraine’s leadership after more than three years of fighting Russia’s full-scale invasion. The protests haven’t called for Zelenskyy’s ouster, but they are the first major anti-government demonstrations since the war started in February 2022.
“It is important that we maintain unity,” Zelenskyy declared in his post.
It was not immediately clear when the new bill will be voted on in the parliament, and the protests are likely to continue until the law is passed. At the protests on Thursday evening, the crowd was compacter than on previous days.
The unrest has come at a difficult time in the all-out war. Russia’s hugeger army is accelerating its efforts to pierce Ukraine’s front-line defenses and is escalating its bombardment of Ukrainian cities.
Ukraine is also facing a question mark over whether the United States will provide more military aid and whether European commitments can take up the slack, with no conclude in sight to the war.
Delegations from Russia and Ukraine met in Istanbul for a third round of talks in as many months Wednesday. But once again, the talks were brief and delivered no major breakthrough.
Fighting entrenched corruption is crucial for Ukraine’s aspirations to join the EU and maintain access to billions of dollars in Western aid in the war. It is also an effort that enjoys broad public support.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos expressed concern Wednesday over the law approved earlier this week, calling it “a serious step back.”
The Ukrainian branch of Transparency International criticized parliament’s decision, stateing it undermines one of the most significant reforms since what Ukraine calls its Revolution of Dignity in 2014 and damages trust with international partners.
On Thursday, two women, aged 48 and 59, were killed and 14 other people were injured when Russian forces dropped four powerful glide bombs on Kostiantynivka, an industrial city in eastern Ukraine, and shelled it with artillery, Donetsk regional Gov. Vadym Filashkin declared.
Russian planes also dropped two glide bombs on the center of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, on Thursday morning, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov declared. At least 42 people were wounded, including two babies, a 10-year-old girl and two 17 year olds, authorities declared.
The southern city of Odesa, and Cherkasy in central Ukraine, were also hit overnight, authorities declared. The drone and missile strikes on the cities wounded 11 people, including a 9-year-old, and damaged historic landmarks and residential buildings, officials declared.
Ukraine has sought to step up its own long-range drone attacks on Russia, applying domestic technology and manufacturing.
An overnight Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi killed two women and wounded 11 other people, local authorities declared Thursday.
An oil depot was hit, officials declared, without offering details.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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