FEW DEPUTIES could remember a law of such importance being rushed so quickly through parliament. The passage of Bill 12414, which subordinates Ukraine’s two main independent anti-corruption bodies to the presidentially appointed prosecutor-general during wartime, had the feel of something done in panic. Unveiled at a hastily convened committee session on July 22nd at 8am, neither the committee head nor the majority of members were present. By the afternoon, the bill had been rushed over to the president for signature. Volodymyr Zelensky’s men had been able to find the numbers to comfortably pass the bill, with 263 voting for and just 13 daring to vote against. But the vote to undermine Ukraine’s most consequential anti-corruption reforms casts a shadow over the country’s future course.
