The political power of is almost total in Ukraine. He holds the presidency since 2019, the government dominates and has an absolute majority in Parliament. But what does not control is the street, where Ukrainians have demonstrated since their independence being indomitable. The president has faced for the first time in the three and a half years of war on public protests. Thousands of young people have concentrated on Tuesday in the cities of kyiv, Dnipró, Odessa and Lvvvo to load against legal measures and the country’s anti -corruption agencies.
The events have precipitated in a way that was difficult to foresee. The Security Services (SSU) of the Ministry of Interior put the first stone of discomfort when they carried out on Monday a raid against the National Anti -Corruption Office (NABU) and against the Anti -Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO). The operation was hard criticized by Ukrainian civil organizations but also by kyiv’s international allies, because they consider it a political action to purify the autonomy of the NABU.
Other actions of the Government and the president’s office in recent weeks in the same sense – the violation of the independence of anti -corruption organizations – had caused protests from civil society, media and opposition, but nothing compared to what happened on Tuesday in the Rada, Parliament. The absolute majority of the town’s server, the Zelenski party, has approved a legal reform that de facto cancels the independence of the NABU and the toad, becoming the Attorney General’s Office, controlled by the Government.
Dozens of famous addemocracy activists have called for hours to citizens to protest against Law 12414. The call has run like the foam and for the first time at war, thousands of people have taken the streets to stand before the President. The demonstration in kyiv has been supervised and monitored by Ozon, an department of the Center for Civil Liberties, an institution dedicated to the promotion of human rights in Ukraine.
The demonstrations have been replicated in several cities, all with the same slogans in favor of the NABU and demanding that Zelenski go back and will not sign the law. “Zelenski is a firm to betray Ukraine democracy,” El Diario wrote in an editorial Kyiv Independent.
Marta Kos, EU expansion curator, has shown in her social networks the discomfort caused by legal reform: “dismantling the protection of the independence of the NABU is a serious setback. Independent organisms such as the NABU and the toad are essential for the path of Ukraine to the EU.”
The largest mobilization, as usual in the moments of greatest political tension in Ukraine, has occurred in kyiv. In the Plaza del Teatro de Ivano Franko – poet and icon of the Ukraine nation – thousands of people, especially young people, have been concentrated from eight in the afternoon and until midnight, when the curfew enters into force.
The country had not witnessed concentrations in public roads during the war, prohibited for security reasons from the martial law. The authorities have not tried to cancel them and to avoid any tension, neither in the square nor in their vicinity the police have been deployed.
500 meters from there is the Plaza de Maidán, where President Víktor Yanukovich. Precisely the Maidan revolution was mentioned by many of the protesters, as an example of the struggle for the reforms that bring Ukraine to the European Union to Ukraine. “Ukraine is not Russia”, “Let’s go to Europe” were two of the most chanted messages in kyiv’s protest.
Attendees brought dozens of cardboard, trimmed with reused boxes of the postal and pizzeria postal service, and distributed them next to markers where to write their slogans.
Zelenski ignores
During the afternoon in the concentration in kyiv there were almost no shouts that would load directly against the president. Who did receive critical allusions throughout the day is, the head of the presidential office and one of the least popular politicians of Ukraine.
The situation has changed when the Information Service of the Rada has reported that Zelenski had signed the decree at the last minute of the night. The news reached the mobiles of the protesters, reacting for the first time those summoned with words against the president.
Zelenski has ignored protests, but a sample of the difficult decision is that every night in his social networks with the most relevant issues of the day. “Ukraine is going back to Yanukovich’s era,” he titled Pravdathe main diary of the country.
The signing of the law has filled the social networks of calls to continue the mobilizations this Wednesday. Precisely on this day another news occurs, it must be held between delegations of Ukraine and Russia to agree on new exchanges of prisoners and bring positions closer for a high fire that the Kremlin rules out.
On Tuesday they also confirmed Ukrainian military units that Russian troops, the main objective of the invader progress in Donetsk province. The protesters have interspersed in all cities messages against the government with cheers to the army and patriotic songs. Among those present were few military and many men of mobilization age who avoid enlistment.
