For the third day in a row, protesters gathered in the center of the capital, on the square near the Ivan Franko Theater, to demonstrate against the law passed by Parliament and signed by the President that limits the powers of the anti-corruption agencies NABU and SAPO.
A Ukrinform correspondent reported this.
About a thousand protesters are chanting in front of the Ivan Franko Theater, on the square, and on the hill on Bankova Street.
In previous days, protesters occupied the entire Franko Square and adjacent streets.
The slogans included: “Pass the law!”, “Money to the front, not into pockets”, “No warrant – no rights”, “Corruption kills”.
Law and order are being maintained by the Dialogue Police, the Municipal Guard, and public observers.
The protest in Vinnytsia brought together active young people from the city and region who came to express their position on restrictions on the independence of anti-corruption bodies.
According to the coordinator of the action, Daria Danyliuk, about 100 activists are participating in the event. She emphasized that they do not represent any political parties or official public organizations.
“We saw that today, both the MPs and the President submitted their bills aimed at neutralizing restrictions on the independence of anti-corruption bodies. But they still need to be voted on and adopted by parliament. Therefore, we want to motivate MPs not to sit around on vacation and to vote for these bills,” Danyliuk said.
The participants first gathered at Nebesnoi Sotni Square, then lined up along Soborna Street. They held homemade cardboard posters with slogans such as “Who is rewriting the laws and regulations against me?,” “Give control back to the people,” “NABU. SAPO, save ASAP,” “We demand action, not excuses,” and so on.
In Zaporizhzhia, a rally in support of the independence of NABU and SAP is being held for the second day on July 24. The organizers moved it to the city center, to Festival Square, because there are two shelters there that can accommodate a large number of people. About 200 people took part in the rally today.
“Will we achieve results? We achieve everything through rallies and protests, and no rally takes place without a certain result. What exactly do I dislike about the law? The anti-corruption bodies, which have existed for quite a long time and were created at the request of the people and international partners, are now trying to deprive them of their independence and subordinate them to the Prosecutor General, who, in fact, is not an independent person, because he is subordinate to the President,“ says the organizer of the action, Oleksandr Spivak, Chairman of the Board of the Youth Wants Change NGO.
One of the rally participants, Natalia, noted that she came to the protest because Law 12414 violates democratic rights.
“These bodies were not flawless; they were not a benchmark, they need to be freed from Russian influence, but not from independence. That’s what I stand for, and that’s why I came here,” says the girl.
The participants in the protest are mainly young people carrying homemade cardboard signs. They chant slogans such as “President, hear the people,” “Hands off NABU,” “I am afraid of being silenced,” and so on.
In the center of Zhytomyr, on S.P. Korolov Square, protesters gathered for the second time to oppose the law passed by parliament and signed by the President to reduce the powers of the anti-corruption agencies NABU and SAPO. More than 100 people attended the protest.
“I came to the rally with my daughter because I remember well the events of the Revolution of Dignity when I was a student studying in Kyiv. What is happening now evokes similar associations for me. I don’t want my child, who is now four years old, to face the same thing in 10 years,” said Andrii Denysevych, a rally participant.
According to veteran Maksym Salko, he came to support his friends who came to Korolov Square. He plans to join a similar protest in Kyiv soon.
In Lviv, the protest was attended mainly by students. They marched through the city center, chanting, “Hands off NABU.” They were supported by the honking horns of cars driving through the city. According to law enforcement officials, 1,500 people took part in the protest.
In Ivano-Frankivsk, protests against the adoption of the law on the SAPO and NABU took place for the third day in a row. This time, more than two hundred young people joined the rally. The activists emphasized that these protests were not organized to overthrow the government, but to pressure it to pass laws that would make anti-corruption agencies independent in Ukraine. The protesters held signs reading “Corruption is the enemy of the future,” “Repeal the law,” “Hands off NABU,” “The people are the government,” and others. The protesters promise to continue holding such protests until the government passes the expected laws. All protests will begin and end with the Ukrainian national anthem.
As reported by Ukrinform, on July 22, the Verkhovna Rada passed a law reducing the powers of NABU and SAPO. On the same day, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed it.
Rallies against the new law began in Kyiv and other cities of Ukraine.
On July 24, Zelensky approved the text of a bill on the independence of the anti-corruption infrastructure.
Source: Protests against law on NABU and SAPO continue in Ukrainian cities
