“Zelensky’s office ordered to derail the restoration of NABU’s powers,” says Dubinsky

The office of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky reportedly gave the order to block a vote in the Verkhovna Rada on restoring the powers of the national anti-corruption bureau (NABU) and the specialized anti-corruption prosecutor’s office (SAPO).

This claim was made by lawmaker Oleksandr Dubinsky, who is currently in pre-trial detention on charges of treason, via his Telegram channel.

According to him, the head of the president’s office, Andriy Yermak, instructed the leadership of the “opposition platform – for life” party to ensure that its members of parliament would not support the bill aimed at restoring the rights of anti-corruption bodies. Dubinsky stated that similar instructions were sent to the “trust” and “for the future” parties. It is also noted that Yulia Tymoshenko’s “batkivshchyna” party does not plan to support the bill either.

At the same time, former president Petro Poroshenko’s party, “european solidarity”, is expected to vote in favor of the bill. According to Dubinsky, under this scenario, at least 185 members of Zelensky’s “servant of the people” party would need to support the bill for it to pass. However, he claimed that the president’s office instructed party members Maksym Buzhansky, Denys Maslov, and Andriy Motovylovets to reduce the number of supporters to 170 — making sure the bill would fail.

On July 22, the Verkhovna Rada passed a law reducing the powers of the country’s anti-corruption agencies. Zelensky signed it the same day. This led to protests in Ukraine and expressions of concern from Brussels.

Later, on July 24, Zelensky submitted a new bill to restore the powers of NABU and SAP. Under the proposed changes, the office of the prosecutor general would be prohibited from issuing orders to those agencies.