For the first time since Russia’s 2022 invasion, large-scale protests filled Kyiv’s streets this week. The immediate cause was President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to sign a new law which guts the independence of the country’s anti-corruption bodies, placing them under the oversight of his hand-picked appointee. This has not come out of the blue. Instead, it appears to be part of a larger effort to consolidate his own power, and follows a major bureaucratic shake-up which merged several ministries and shuffled his top advisors.
Though Zelensky has argued that the changes will increase the government’s efficiency and help Ukraine better sustain its war, the reality is likely to be quite different. Instead, the swipe at anti-corruption groups risks eroding Kyiv’s foreign support by reminding observers that Ukraine was never the model democracy imagined by Washington and Brussels. Zelensky’s political moves may also accelerate domestic dissatisfaction with his management of the country’s seemingly interminable conflict with Russia.
But even as the President’s authoritarian turn creates new pressures for an end to the fighting, it will also complicate his attempts to broker a favourable settlement, placing key demands such as EU membership far out of his grasp.
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