The National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine has long been a battleground in Ukrainian politics, where graft is rife.

Ukrainian analysts have told Newsweek the move undoes a decade of democratic progress, although its president Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday he backed a new draft law aimed at strengthening the independence the anti-corruption institutions. Newsweek has contacted the Ukrainian president's office and the Kremlin for comment.

Thousands of people gathered in the streets of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday night to protest moves by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government to weaken anticorruption institutions, in the country’s first major antigovernment demonstration in three and a half years of war.

Ukraine’s president pledged a new course after protesters criticized his signing of a bill to strip anticorruption agencies of power.

EADaily, July 25th, 2025. Started on In Ukraine, protests against the restriction of the powers of anti-corruption structures may be the start of a three-stage plan to overthrow the head of the Kiev regime,

President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a bill limiting two Ukrainian anticorruption agencies. After street protests and other criticism, he said he would propose a new law restoring their independence.