On the morning of November 28, Ukrainian law enforcement did something it had never before done in its history: It showed up at the apartment of the head of the president’s office to investigate him for graft.
Commentators around the world have noted the strain that an unfolding scandal has put on the Ukrainian presidency at a time when the United States is pressuring the country to make concessions to Russia. But just as striking is the fact that an investigation into energy-sector kickbacks at the highest levels of government and business is happening at all. This is in many ways a victory for Ukrainian democracy, and for a civil society that, since the 2014 revolution on the Maidan, has worked tirelessly to hold its government to account, even during wartime.
In July, Ukraine’s Parliament passed a law limiting the independence of anti-corruption bodies, and President Volodymyr Zelensky initially signed it. But under pressure from the street, he restored everything to the way it was before.
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