Slogans, songs, the Ukrainian national anthem – on Tuesday, July 22, at around 8 pm, several thousand people gathered outside the offices of the Ukrainian presidency in Kyiv, despite the martial law in force since 2022. Draped in Ukrainian flags or holding signs, demonstrators protested against the adoption, in the afternoon, of a law by a wide parliamentary majority (263 votes in favor, 13 against and 13 abstentions) that severely weakens the country’s anti-corruption framework, painstakingly established after the 2014 Maidan Revolution. This movement followed then president Viktor Yanukovych’s refusal to sign an association agreement with the European Union, favoring closer ties with Russia instead. The vote brought a segment of the nation’s youth into the streets amid full-scale war – the first such protest since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, except for rallies in support of prisoners.
“Shame,” “Government resign, gang out!” chanted protesters gathered in Kyiv around the garden facing the national theater, just a five-minute walk from the iconic Maidan Square, where the “Revolution of Dignity” took place more than a decade ago. Early Tuesday evening, around 40 former soldiers – enlisted in 2014 (during the annexation of Crimea) or 2022 – gathered at the foot of the presidential palace, many in shorts and with prosthetics. But the vast majority of the crowd was very young: Arrests for recruitment have made those over 25 far more cautious.
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