Drone and missile attacks also leave dozens injured on eve of crucial vote on anti-corruption bodies
Russia–Ukraine war – latest updates
Europe live – latest updates
Russian strikes on Kyiv overnight have killed at least six people, including a six-year-old boy, according to local officials, with drones and missiles hitting at least 27 sites and leaving a further 30 people hospitalised, including nine children. A nine-storey residential building partly collapsed after it was struck.
Explosions rang out for hours, making it another sleepless night for many in the Ukrainian capital before a crucial parliamentary vote on Thursday on legislation to restore independence to two anti-corruption bodies. The bill, if passed, would essentially undo a law passed last week that curtailed their powers and led to a political crisis.
The surprise changes prompted rare wartime street protests against the president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and accusations that his office was trying to protect powerful associates from anti-corruption investigations.
Zelenskyy announced late last week that he had listened to the criticism expressed at a series of street protests and from various western officials and would table a new law.
On Wednesday evening, about 2,000 protesters came out again in rainy conditions to call on parliament to back the new law. The demonstrators, many of whom were teenagers, held handwritten signs with political jokes and memes. They sang the national anthem and chanted: “Cancel the law!”
Protesters have been clear that they do not have revolutionary intentions, with most acutely aware of the dangers of political destabilisation in wartime. Instead, they say, the demonstrations show that Ukrainian democracy is functioning despite a lack of elections under martial law, with the presidency forced to listen to the mood of the street.
People are due to gather again on Friday as parliament sits to consider the law. Some MPs from Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party have expressed scepticism over the new law, complaining that they are being ordered to vote to annul the very thing that last week they were told to vote for, making it not certain that the new bill will have an easy passage.
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said on Wednesday the government hoped to fix the situation with the new law. “We anticipate the vote tomorrow. The relevant parliamentary committee has already given its approval. We are getting this fixed,” he said.
The institutions targeted by the law are the national anti-corruption bureau, known as Nabu, and the specialised anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, Sapo. Both work independently of other law enforcement bodies specifically to target high-level corruption.
Oleksandr Klymenko, the head of Sapo, told journalists in a briefing at his office in Kyiv on Wednesday that he hoped parliament would pass the law and that it would be ratified and enacted “immediately”.
Klymenko said the moves against Nabu and Sapo were payback from other parts of the Ukrainian system for its pursuit of high-level corruption, noting that the bodies had opened investigations into 31 sitting MPs. “The main thing about our work is the enormous preventive effect it has,” he said, claiming that the prospect of being caught means fewer top officials risked engaging in corrupt activities.
Explaining the hastily passed law last week, Zelenskyy said he feared Nabu and Sapo had been infiltrated by Russian agents, and that he wanted to ensure closer cooperation between different law enforcement bodies. But this has been brushed off by many Ukrainians as excuses.
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Several European leaders spoke to Zelenskyy last week about the law, urging him to find a way out of the crisis. “It was important for him to hear it from his peers,” said a western diplomat in Kyiv. European officials have cautiously criticised the bill in public.
“The dismantling of key safeguards protecting [anti-corruption bureau] Nabu’s independence is a serious step back,” the European commissioner for enlargement, Marta Kos, wrote on social media. She added that the two bodies were “essential” to keep Ukraine on the path to EU accession.
The political crisis comes as Donald Trump appears to be taking a slightly tougher tone with Russia, lowering an earlier 50-day deadline for Russia to make progress on a ceasefire to “10 or 12 days” earlier this week, saying he does not see a serious desire to end the war from Vladimir Putin.
Zelenskyy on Thursday called on Ukraine’s allies to pressure Moscow further after the latest strikes on Kyiv. “Today the world once again saw Russia’s answer to our desire for peace with America and Europe … That is why peace without strength is impossible,” he wrote on Telegram.
Moscow continues to bombard Ukraine with nightly missile and drone attacks, while on the battlefield Russia continues a very slow advance. The Russian defence ministry claimed on Thursday that it had captured the eastern town of Chasiv Yar, once home to 12,000 people, which has been the site of fierce battles for more than a year. Ukraine has not confirmed the Russian claims.
Russian strikes on Kyiv kill at least six people, Ukrainian officials say – The Guardian
