“Stop eating feces”: how MPs criticized the authorities and Zelensky during the Rada session broadcast

Today, for the first time since the beginning of the full-scale war, a session of the Verkhovna Rada was broadcast online — during which the parliament passed a law restoring the powers of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO).

The debate over the bill was heated.

Former Speaker Dmytro Razumkov gave an emotional speech from the podium.

“Aren’t you tired of eating excrement and feeding it to others at the same time?” he demanded that those responsible for instructing MPs to vote for the controversial bill limiting the powers of anti-corruption bodies be named.

Then, Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of the Batkivshchyna party, criticized the restoration of NABU and SAPO powers. She reiterated that her faction would only support its own version of the bill — not the one submitted by the president. Tymoshenko also expressed disbelief in claims that Western funding would stop if Zelensky’s version of the bill failed.

Next, MP Oleksiy Honcharenko took the podium and harshly criticized President Zelensky over the NABU issue.

Referring to him mockingly as “Kim Chen Ze,” he accused the president of attempting to build a dictatorship and called the situation surrounding the anti-corruption agencies “Ze End” for Zelensky. He urged the president to “forget about a second term.”

In the end, the bill passed with 331 votes in favor.

A symbolic image from today’s session may be the photo showing MP Oleksandr Markovsky and faction leader David Arakhamia of Servant of the People holding a cardboard sign that reads: “We are with the people.”

President Zelensky has already signed the adopted bill, as confirmed by the official document card on the parliament’s website.