Ukraine's Parliament approves law restoring independence of anti-graft watchdogs following backlash

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s Parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bill presented by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that restores the independence of two of the country’s key anti-corruption watchdogs, reversing his contentious move last week that curbed their power and brought an outcry.

Last week’s measure by Zelenskyy to place the watchdogs under the oversight of the prosecutor-general prompted rebukes from Ukrainians, the European Union and international rights groups. It raised fears that the government could meddle in investigations and potentially shield its supporters from scrutiny.

Fighting entrenched corruption is crucial for Ukraine’s aspirations to join the EU and maintain access to billions of dollars of vital Western aid in the nearly 3½-year all-out war. It's also an effort that enjoys broad public support.

Zelenskyy said he signed the bill into law less than two hours after its approval — an unusually speedy procedure for legislation.

“It guarantees normal, independent work for anti-corruption bodies and all law enforcement agencies in our state,” Zelenskyy said of the new law. “A truly productive day with real impact for the people.”

Zelenskyy has been the international face of Ukraine’s determination to thwart Russia’s invasion. The anti-graft changes that he backed last week tarnished his image abroad and put a question mark over his country’s efforts to meet standards set by the EU for membership.

“Ukraine’s move to restore powers of anti-corruption bodies demonstrates its resolve to quickly get back on course when European democratic values are at stake,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas‬ said on social media.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos, who called last week’s legislative changes “a serious step back,” welcomed approval of the bill, saying lawmakers had “corrected last week’s damaging vote.”

“Today’s law restores key safeguards, but challenges remain,” Kos, who monitors the record of countries that are candidates to join the bloc, wrote on X. “The EU supports (Ukrainian) citizens’ demands for reform. Upholding fundamental values & fighting corruption must remain the priority.”

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that Ukraine “is committed to reforms and the fight against corruption,” and that Zelenskyy “demonstrated a principled approach.”

“We got it fixed,” he wrote on X.

At the start of a livestream of the parliamentary session, which was the first to be broadcast in real time since the start of the war, two lawmakers could be seen exchanging punches. Although the reason for the scuffle wasn't known, it occurred amid a tense atmosphere in the chamber where the speaker’s podium is flanked by Ukrainian and EU flags.

The backlash against Zelenskyy's measures brought street protests across the country, the first major demonstrations since Russia's full-scale invasion began on Feb. 24, 2022. Though the protests didn’t call for the president's removal, the controversy threatened to undermine public trust in their leaders at a critical time.

Russia’s bigger army is accelerating its efforts to pierce Ukraine’s front-line defenses and is escalating its bombardment of Ukrainian cities. There is also uncertainty over how much additional weaponry Ukraine’s Western partners can provide and how quickly.

The Ukrainian branch of Transparency International also criticized last week's legislation, saying it weakened one of the most significant reforms since what Ukraine calls its Revolution of Dignity in 2014.

Zelenskyy said his goal had been to speed up prolonged investigations, ensure more convictions and remove Russian meddling in investigations, which he didn’t detail.

He said he had taken note of the protests and decided to present a new bill to Parliament underscoring that the prosecutor general and his deputies cannot give orders to anti-graft agencies or interfere in their work.

Lawmakers in the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian Parliament in Kyiv, approved Zelenskyy’s new proposal with 331 votes and nine abstentions on Thursday, official figures showed.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Participants gather at a protest against a law targeting anti-corruption institutions in front of the Ukrainian parliament in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Participants gather at a protest against a law targeting anti-corruption institutions in front of the Ukrainian parliament in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Participants react at a protest against a law targeting anti-corruption institutions in front of the Ukrainian parliament in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Ukrainian lawmakers vote for a new bill proposed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to restore the independence of the country's anti-corruption agencies, at the parliament session hall in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Vadym Sarakhan)

Ukrainian lawmakers are calling to vote for a new bill proposed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy restoring the independence of the country's anti-corruption agencies at the parliament session hall in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 31, 2025.(AP Photo/Vadym Sarakhan)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses online the opening of the Helsinki+50 Conference in Helsinki, Finland, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (Mikko Stig/Lehtikuva via AP)

Participants gather at a protest against a law targeting anti-corruption institutions in front of the Ukrainian parliament in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Participants gather at a protest against a law targeting anti-corruption institutions in front of the Ukrainian parliament in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Participants gather at a protest against a law targeting anti-corruption institutions in front of the Ukrainian parliament in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Participants react at a protest against a law targeting anti-corruption institutions in front of the Ukrainian parliament in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Ukrainian lawmakers vote for a new bill proposed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to restore the independence of the country's anti-corruption agencies, at the parliament session hall in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Vadym Sarakhan)

Ukrainian lawmakers are calling to vote for a new bill proposed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy restoring the independence of the country's anti-corruption agencies at the parliament session hall in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 31, 2025.(AP Photo/Vadym Sarakhan)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses online the opening of the Helsinki+50 Conference in Helsinki, Finland, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (Mikko Stig/Lehtikuva via AP)

MADRID (AP) — Venezuelans living in Spain are watching the events unfold back home with a mix of awe, joy and fear.

Some 600,000 Venezuelans live in Spain, home to the largest population anywhere outside the Americas. Many fled political persecution and violence but also the country’s collapsing economy.

A majority live in the capital, Madrid, working in hospitals, restaurants, cafes, nursing homes and elsewhere. While some Venezuelan migrants have established deep roots and lives in the Iberian nation, others have just arrived.

Here is what three of them had to say about the future of Venezuela since U.S. forces deposed Nicolás Maduro.

David Vallenilla woke up to text messages from a cousin on Jan. 3 informing him “that they invaded Venezuela.” The 65-year-old from Caracas lives alone in a tidy apartment in the south of Madrid with two Daschunds and a handful of birds. He was in disbelief.

“In that moment, I wanted certainty,” Vallenilla said, “certainty about what they were telling me.”

In June 2017, Vallenilla’s son, a 22-year-old nursing student in Caracas named David José, was shot point-blank by a Venezuelan soldier after taking part in a protest near a military air base in the capital. He later died from his injuries. Video footage of the incident was widely publicized, turning his son’s death into an emblematic case of the Maduro government’s repression against protesters that year.

After demanding answers for his son’s death, Vallenilla, too, started receiving threats and decided two years later to move to Spain with the help of a nongovernmental organization.

On the day of Maduro’s capture, Vallenilla said his phone was flooded with messages about his son.

“Many told me, ‘Now David will be resting in peace. David must be happy in heaven,’” he said. “But don't think it was easy: I spent the whole day crying.”

Vallenilla is watching the events in Venezuela unfold with skepticism but also hope. He fears more violence, but says he has hope the Trump administration can effect the change that Venezuelans like his son tried to obtain through elections, popular protests and international institutions.

“Nothing will bring back my son. But the fact that some justice has begun to be served for those responsible helps me see a light at the end of the tunnel. Besides, I also hope for a free Venezuela.”

Journalist Carleth Morales first came to Madrid a quarter-century ago when Hugo Chávez was reelected as Venezuela's president in 2000 under a new constitution.

The 54-year-old wanted to study and return home, taking a break of sorts in Madrid as she sensed a political and economic environment that was growing more and more challenging.

“I left with the intention of getting more qualified, of studying, and of returning because I understood that the country was going through a process of adaptation between what we had known before and, well, Chávez and his new policies," Morales said. "But I had no idea that we were going to reach the point we did.”

In 2015, Morales founded an organization of Venezuelan journalists in Spain, which today has hundreds of members.

The morning U.S. forces captured Maduro, Morales said she woke up to a barrage of missed calls from friends and family in Venezuela.

“Of course, we hope to recover a democratic country, a free country, a country where human rights are respected,” Morales said. “But it’s difficult to think that as a Venezuelan when we’ve lived through so many things and suffered so much.”

Morales sees it as unlikely that she would return home, having spent more than two decades in Spain, but she said she hopes her daughters can one day view Venezuela as a viable option.

“I once heard a colleague say, ‘I work for Venezuela so that my children will see it as a life opportunity.’ And I adopted that phrase as my own. So perhaps in a few years it won’t be me who enjoys a democratic Venezuela, but my daughters.”

For two weeks, Verónica Noya has waited for her phone to ring with the news that her husband and brother have been freed.

Noya’s husband, Venezuelan army Capt. Antonio Sequea, was imprisoned in 2020 after having taken part in a military incursion to oust Maduro. She said he remains in solitary confinement in the El Rodeo prison in Caracas. For 20 months, Noya has been unable to communicate with him or her brother, who was also arrested for taking part in the same plot.

“That’s when my nightmare began,” Noya said.

Venezuelan authorities have said hundreds of political prisoners have been released since Maduro's capture, while rights groups have said the real number is a fraction of that. Noya has waited in agony to hear anything about her four relatives, including her husband's mother, who remain imprisoned.

Meanwhile, she has struggled with what to tell her children when they ask about their father's whereabouts. They left Venezuela scrambling and decided to come to Spain because family roots in the country meant that Noya already had a Spanish passport.

Still, she hopes to return to her country.

“I’m Venezuelan above all else,” Noya said. “And I dream of seeing a newly democratic country."

Venezuelan journalist Caleth Morales works in her apartment's kitchen in Madrid, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

David Vallenilla, father of the late David José Vallenilla Luis, sits in his apartment's kitchen in Madrid, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Veronica Noya holds a picture of her husband Antonio Sequea in Madrid, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

David Vallenilla holds a picture of deposed President Nicolas Maduro, blindfolded and handcuffed, during an interview with The Associated Press at his home in Madrid, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Pictures of the late David José Vallenilla Luis are placed in the living room of his father, David José Vallenilla, in Madrid, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)