When Volodymyr Zelensky was elected to Ukraine’s presidency on an anti-corruption platform in 2019, he embodied the country’s youthful desire for reform. The eruption of a political turf war last week, ironically, over control of Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies, has revealed a different side to the comedian-turned-war leader. But it has also reaffirmed how fiercely the Ukrainian people will fight to defend their fragile democracy.

During the Maidan Revolution in 2014, Ukrainians ousted a Kremlin-backed kleptocrat in order to pursue a European future. All too aware that endemic corruption made their political system vulnerable to manipulation by powerful oligarchs and Russian influence, they set about developing a new system of safeguards to boost transparency and accountability.