Protesters gather in Odesa on 22 July 2025. Photo: Suspilne

Thousands of people gathered in cities across Ukraine on Tuesday to protest a controversial law signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky that weakens the independence of the country’s two key anti-corruption agencies.

In Kyiv, crowds of demonstrators assembled near the Ivan Franko Drama Theatre, close to the presidential office, following the passing of the bill by Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada. Ukrainian news outlets reported that many demonstrators came with flags and handmade signs, and chanted slogans including “Veto the law” and “No corruption in government”.

Estimates of the crowd ranged from several hundred to around 3,000, with Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko also reportedly in attendance.

Hundreds more gathered in the cities of Lviv, Dnipro and Odesa, marking the largest anti-government protests in Ukraine — which is still under martial law — since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.

As the protests continued on Tuesday evening, Zelensky signed the bill, which strips the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) of their autonomy and grants Ukraine’s prosecutor general sweeping powers over both bodies, including the authority to reassign and close ongoing corruption cases.

As the prosecutor general is appointed by the president, critics say the new law centralises power in Zelensky’s hands and gives him unprecedented control over which cases are pursued or dropped.

The swift passing of the bill on Tuesday drew condemnation not only from civil society groups and opposition figures within Ukraine, but also from Western officials, with EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos calling it a “serious step back”.

In his nightly address to Ukrainians, Zelensky made no direct mention of the protests, but said Tuesday had been a “long, emotional day”. He defended the legislation, saying it would ensure Ukraine’s anti-corruption infrastructure was “cleared of … Russian influence” and allow Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko to guarantee the “inevitability of punishment” for those who broke the law.

“Cases that have been lying dormant must be investigated”, Zelensky said. “There is no rational explanation for why criminal proceedings worth billions have been ‘hanging’ for years”, he added, stressing that the new law would bring “more justice”.

Established in the wake of Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity at the insistence of Kyiv’s Western partners to tackle high-level corruption, the NABU and SAPO have both operated independently of the Ukrainian government since 2015.

Both agencies expressed their gratitude for the protests in statements on Tuesday evening, with NABU calling them a “sign of trust” in the institutions and SAPO pledging both bodies would “continue to fight for justice, integrity, and dignity”.