Dmytro Kostyuk, a member of parliament from the 65th electoral district of Zhytomyr region, reported from the parliament rostrum that he was leaving the “Servant of the People” faction. He cited the vote on NABU and SAPO last week as the reason.
"There are many questions for NABU and SAPO, there is endless PR, but there are not enough arrests of top corrupt officials. But the creation of an anti-corruption infrastructure was one of the main results of the Revolution of Dignity," said Kostyuk.
According to Kostyuk, he was elected to parliament thanks to President Zelensky, and he has always supported the president. But the faction is being forced to vote for norms that he does not support.
"If a faction has such leaders, itʼs not my faction," he said.
The “Servant of the People” parliamentary faction has 230 MPs remaining. After the 2019 parliamentary elections, there were 254.
- On July 22, the Verkhovna Rada adopted, and President Volodymyr Zelensky signed, Law No. 12414, which significantly limited the activities of NABU and SAPO and subordinated them to the Prosecutor General.
- NABU and SAPO emphasized that if the document is adopted, the head of SAPO will become a nominal figure, and NABU will lose its independence and turn into a unit of the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office. In Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv, and Dnipro, people took to the streets to protest against the bill.
- After public outcry, a group of deputies registered an alternative bill, which, according to them, should restore the independence of NABU and SAPO.
- Separately, Zelensky said that he also agreed on the text of the document, which concerns the work of anti-corruption bodies.
- On July 31, the Verkhovna Rada supported in the first reading and in general the presidential bill on strengthening NABU and SAPO.
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