UKRAINE – Oleksiy Goncharenko who’s the deputy in Ukraine’s parliament (Rada) has accused Volodymyr Zelenskyy of lying to western media about corruption in Ukraine.

“Volodymir Aleksandrovich is lying utterly on Fox News… Didn’t his Servants (Servant of the People party) attempt to destroy the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office several months ago, on direct orders?… Zelenskyy has the audacity to claim that he himself is the main defender of anti-corruption agencies,” he said in a Telegram post.

Reacting to a recent article on The Economist that described the erosion of Ukrainian public trust in the government following Zelenskyy’s attempt to restrict the country’s anti-corruption agencies, Oleksiy added “how convenient.”

Earlier, The Economist, citing an unnamed Ukrainian official, reported that trust between society and the government in Ukraine had collapsed, in particular due to Zelenskyy’s signing of a law in July restricting Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies.

The Context

In July 22, the Ukrainian Rada supported a bill initiated by Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party that would abolish the independence of two anti-corruption agencies, which he signed.

Later after protests, he announced that he had immediately approved a counter-legislative initiative that would purportedly strengthen the independence of these agencies on 24th of the same month.

The Ukrainian parliament supported the bill on restoring the independence of NABU and SAP in two readings. Zelenskyy signed it that same day on 31st of July.