From the editor
Volodymyr Zelensky has reversed a decision to restrict the independence of Ukraine’s national anti-corruption bureau (NABU) and specialised anti-corruption prosecutor’s office (SAPO) after he faced the first protests against his government since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. On Tuesday night the Ukrainian president signed law No. 12414 that had just been passed by the Verkhovna Rada that gave the prosecutor general power over the two investigative bodies – despite pleas not to do this by Ukraine’s Western allies. Protesters came out on the streets of Kyiv on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday until Zelensky relented and submitted a new bill to the Rada, No. 13533, which expands the powers of NABU and SAPO once again. Zelensky had claimed that the original bill was needed to eliminate Russian influence in the organisations.
Protests in Kyiv and other cities forced Zelensky to reverse his position
Zelensky’s actions have played into the hands of Russian propaganda that insists he is a dictator, while Ukrainians can also argue that events show that their country is very much a democracy where the people can make a difference. But there is also real discontent with a president whose sometimes questionable domestic decisions have been overshadowed by his status as a heroic wartime leader.
One week earlier Zelensky had shaken up his Cabinet, replacing long-serving Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal with 39-year-old Yuliia Svyrydenko, a deputy prime minister and economy minister who has played a significant role in talks with Ukraine’s Western partners. Shmyhal became defence minister, replacing Rustem Umerov. A refresh was perhaps needed in an effort to make some headway both in the war and in the shaky relations with the Trump administration, but questions will now be asked about whether Zelensky himself needs to go.
Russia and Ukraine held more talks in Istanbul on Wednesday but they lasted only slightly more than half an hour and Russia rejected Ukraine’s calls for an immediate ceasefire. The scale of what Ukraine is dealing with was illustrated by a report by military TV channel Zvezda on the huge Yelabuga factory in Tatarstan that produces Shahed drones. Riding around the plant in a buggy, the TV crew passes a billboard that proclaims to workers: “Kurchatov, Korolev and Stalin live in your DNA.” Igor Kurchatov pioneered the development of nuclear weapons in the Soviet Union and Sergei Korolev led the space programme after spending time in the Gulag. The Zvezda report features teenagers making the drones using parts shipped in from Iran. Modern Russia is now devoting most of its financial, scientific and human resources to killing Ukrainians. One of the drones has been put on display outside Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry in Kyiv.
As usual Russia attacked Ukraine again after the talks, striking blocks of flats in the centre of Kharkiv yesterday with guided aerial bombs, injuring 42 people, and damaging historic buildings in Odesa. Last Friday night another Russian attack on Odesa killed one person. On Monday night Russia attacked Kyiv Oblast with drones and missiles, killing one person and injuring another. On Tuesday night Russia struck a residential building in Kramatorsk in Donetsk Oblast with an aerial bomb, killing a 10-year-old boy and injuring five other people.
Zelensky has made a bid to salvage his tarnished reputation with a video posted on X last night in which he said: “It is important that Ukrainians are responding with such dignity to everything that’s happening. Ukraine is a country of people who don’t look away. Thank you to everyone who is fighting for our state, who is working for Ukraine.” Whether his people will continue to trust him to fight the Russians on the battlefield instead of using them as a pretext to crack down on institutions that could ask awkward questions remains to be seen.
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War returnee kills bride on wedding night
A military court in Yekaterinburg has sentenced Alexei Marchukov to 12 ½ years in prison for murdering his wife Marina on their wedding night. Marchukov had just returned from the war in Ukraine and after getting drunk ad arguing with Marina he hit her in the face and stabbed her in the heart with a kitchen knife. His sister told media that he had been arrested multiple times for being drunk and disorderly and was offered the choice of going to prison or fighting in the war. Marina’s son Andrei said Marchukov had previously assaulted her. After sentencing Marchukov expressed a desire to go back to the war.
Two more sentenced for anti-regime activities
A court in Samara Oblast has sentenced 32-year-old Konstantin Peyev – originally from Enerhodar in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Oblast - to 15 years in a maximum-security prison for treason. The trial was held behind closed doors and little is known about the case or Peyev, except that he may have obtained Russian citizenship only in the past two years. Enerhodar is occupied by Russia and is the location of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Peyev was given three consecutive sentences of 15 days in jail starting in November last year for allegedly swearing on the street and harassing passers-by.
A military court has sentenced 31-year-old advertising agency employee Vakhtangi Rogava from St. Petersburg to 3 ½ years in prison for justifying terrorism for a comment in support of the Russian Volunteer Corps that fights for Ukraine. According to prosecutors Rogava, who was arrested in March, wanted to “spread terrorist ideology to as many people as possible”. Rogava pled guilty, expressed remorse in court and promised never to write anything similar again.
135 people sentenced for Makhachkala airport pogrom
A total of 135 people have received prison sentences of between 6 ½ and 15 years for participating in a pogrom at Makhachkala airport in October 2023 when a crowd ran onto the runway to threaten passengers arriving on a plane from Israel, Russia’s Investigations Committee has said. The Investigations Committee blamed exiled former MP Ilya Ponomarev, who lives in Ukraine and became a Ukrainian citizen in 2019, for inciting the pogrom by means of a post on Telegram.
Passenger plane crashes in far east
A 49-year-old An-24 aircraft has crashed in Amur Oblast, killing all 42 passengers and seven crew members on board. The plane, operated by Angara Airlines, flew from Khabarovsk and crashed in Tynda while approaching the airport where it was due to land. In 2021 its airworthiness certificate was extended to 2036. Russian airlines have complained that they have difficulty obtaining spare parts due to Western sanctions.
Three killed in Saratov household gas explosion
Three people were confirmed dead in a powerful household gas explosion in a 10-storey block of flats in Saratov this morning, and passers-by were also reportedly injured as the top of the building blew off. These explosions are regular occurrences in Russia, where millions of people live in poorly-maintained aging buildings.