Ukraine’s parliament voted 263–13 on 22 July to pass Law No. 12414, transferring oversight of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office to the prosecutor general, who is appointed by the president. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed the measure the same night, bringing it into force immediately. Critics say the law effectively ends the operational independence that NABU and SAPO have enjoyed since their creation in 2014-15 and risks stalling high-level graft probes. The step was taken a day after security services arrested two NABU employees on suspicion of having Russian ties. Zelenskiy defended the shake-up as necessary to purge “Russian influence,” but both agencies issued a joint statement demanding that their autonomy be restored. The legislation drew unusually sharp rebukes from Kyiv’s Western partners. EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos called it “a serious step back,” while German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul warned that curbing the agencies could jeopardise Ukraine’s bid to join the bloc and its access to reconstruction funding conditioned on rule-of-law reforms. Public anger erupted into the largest street demonstrations since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Several thousand protesters gathered outside the presidential administration in Kyiv late on 22 July, chanting “Shame” and “Veto the law.” Similar rallies were reported in Lviv, Odesa and Dnipro on 23 July, according to Reuters, with crowds demanding that the government reverse course. Confronted with the backlash, Zelenskiy met senior law-enforcement officials on 23 July and said he would submit a presidential bill to parliament within two weeks that would “ensure the independence of anti-corruption bodies” while reinforcing safeguards against foreign interference. Opposition lawmakers have meanwhile prepared legislation to repeal Law 12414 and indicated they will challenge it in the Constitutional Court, leaving Kyiv’s anti-graft architecture—and its wider reform credentials—in limbo.