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Ukraine’s government faced pressure from protesters and foreign backers after attempt to take away power from agencies.
Ukraine’s parliament has voted to restore the independence of two key anti-corruption agencies, moving to defuse the country’s biggest political crisis since Russia’s invasion.
Lawmakers on Thursday voted 331 to 0 in favour of the bill, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy submitted last week following pressure from thousands of protesters and top European officials.
The measure now goes to Zelenskyy for a signature.
Ukrainians had reacted angrily to amendments pushed through parliament last week by Zelenskyy’s ruling party that gave the president’s hand-picked general prosecutor the power to transfer cases away from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) and reassign prosecutors.
The decision led to some of the biggest protests held in Ukraine since the 2022 Russian invasion began, with thousands taking to the streets of Kyiv. Protesters continued to gather even after Zelenskyy had announced that he would roll back the amendments, and were outside parliament on Thursday as legislators voted.
Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from outside of the parliament building in Kyiv, said that there was a sense of relief among protesters after the “largest political crisis” Zelenskyy has faced since the war began.
“The last couple of weeks have been a huge embarrassment to President Zelenskyy and his cabinet,” Stratford said. “Lots of questions are being asked about… why he changed the law in the first place.”
Stratford noted that it was not just public anger that had forced Zelenskyy to reverse the decision, but “also a huge amount of pressure from Ukraine’s backers” who were shocked and concerned at the decision, and hints from the European Union that some funding to Ukraine may be withdrawn.
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