Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada has passed draft law No. 12414 in its second reading, effectively making the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) subordinate to the Prosecutor General. Until now, both institutions operated independently.
If President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will sigh the Law, it will drag Ukraine back to the Yanukovych era.
The law subordinates the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) to the Prosecutor General, granting them the power to seize any investigation and control its course.
Under these conditions, NABU, SAPO, and the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) lose all meaning – Zelenskyy’s Prosecutor General will now be able to shut down any investigation targeting the President’s allies.
This renders electronic asset declarations, accountability for illicit enrichment, special confiscations, and other anti-corruption reforms essentially meaningless.
Today, MPs from Zelenskyy’s “Servant of the People” party voted in favor of draft law No. 12414.
Lawmakers chose a path for Ukraine – a path back to the corrupt days of Yanukovych. They voted to dismantle NABU and SAPO.
263 MPs voted “yes” comes from:
- Servant of the People – 185,
- European Solidarity – 3,
- Batkivshchyna – 15,
- Opposition Platform–For Life (OPFL/OPZZh) – 18,
- Holos (Voice) – 1,
- Restoration of Ukraine – 9,
- For the Future – 10,
- Trust – 17.
Ahead of the vote, several MPs blocked the parliamentary rostrum. MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak explained that this was “the only theoretical way to stop” the bill from passing.
Earlier, the parliamentary law enforcement committee supported amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code that would strip NABU and SAPO of their independence by placing them under the authority of the Prosecutor General.
The committee meeting that morning – on July 22 – recommended that the bill move forward with committee-endorsed changes.
Notably, committee chair Serhii Ionushas, first deputy Andrii Osadchuk, and subcommittee head Oleksandr Bakumov were absent from the meeting. Most committee members reportedly learned of the session and its decisions only after the fact.
No. 12414 on the liquidation of the NABU and the SAPO has already been signed by the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada and submitted to the President for signature.
Both NABU and SAPO have issued warnings that draft law No. 12414 would effectively destroy SAPO’s independence and subjugate both agencies to the Prosecutor General’s control.
We also publish the full list of names of those who voted to destroy Ukraine’s core anti-corruption institutions.
