{"id":286926,"date":"2025-07-24T03:49:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T03:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/286926\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T03:49:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T03:49:10","slug":"putins-bloody-war-puts-democracy-under-strain-in-ukraine-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/286926\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin\u2019s bloody war puts democracy under strain in Ukraine \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.president.gov.ua\/en\/news\/antikorupcijna-infrastruktura-pracyuvatime-tilki-bez-rosijsk-99117\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Zelenskyy argued<\/a> that the radical move was needed to block Russian interference \u2014\u00a0and on Wednesday said he had \u201cheard the public opinion\u201d and promised to fix the situation with a new bill that he pledged would preserve the agencies\u2019 independence.<\/p>\n<p>But there is growing worry that Zelenskyy and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/06\/19\/ukraine-andriy-yermak-frustrates-trump-administration-00414197\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">his entourage<\/a> might be using the authority granted him under martial law to concentrate power in a bid to keep the country fighting \u2014 in a way that raises fears over the country\u2019s democratic credentials.<\/p>\n<p>Svitlana Matviienko, executive director of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives, a Ukrainian NGO, warned that there is a \u201ccommon pattern in the government\u2019s abuse of power through violation of rules and procedure.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>In addition to this week\u2019s legislation on anti-corruption agencies, the NGO pointed to last week\u2019s Cabinet reshuffle as violating procedural rules, laws signed in violation of legislative deadlines, and cases like the prosecution of Vitaliy Shabunin, a Ukrainian army soldier and co-founder of Anti-Corruption Action Center, a top watchdog pushing for anti-corruption reform in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>Shabunin is being charged with desertion and fraud. He insists his commander sent him to Kyiv to the national anti-corruption prevention commission to reform army procurement transparency, but the <a href=\"https:\/\/dbr.gov.ua\/news\/dbr-povidomilo-pro-pidozru-odnomu-iz-gromadskih-aktivistiv-za-uhilennya-vid-vijskovoi-sluzhbi-ta-shahrajstvo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">government says<\/a> he\u2019s being treated the same as any other soldier absent without leave.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile persecuting me, the president\u2019s office sends a message to all watchdogs, investigative journalists and Ukrainian servicemen that they can persecute anyone anywhere and at any moment,\u201d Shabunin said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zelenskyy argued that the radical move was needed to block Russian interference \u2014\u00a0and on Wednesday said he had&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2575,6659,31,5293,2000,299,3976,332,657,19655,333,2601,335],"class_list":{"0":"post-286926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-corruption","9":"tag-crisis","10":"tag-democracy","11":"tag-diplomacy","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-governance","15":"tag-russia","16":"tag-ukraine","17":"tag-ukrainian-politics","18":"tag-vladimir-putin","19":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","20":"tag-war-in-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114906173585988879","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}