When President Volodymyr Zelensky signed legislation weakening Ukraine’s key anti-corruption agencies on July 22, he appeared to think his people would sit idle. Instead, he unleashed the first major protests in the country since Russia’s invasion began in Feb. 2022. Those protests and Zelensky’s U-turn ultimately demonstrated that Ukrainian democracy remains vibrant even under the most extreme circumstances.

The institution at stake, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), was established in 2014 as one of the requirements set by the European Union and International Monetary Fund for financial support and visa liberalization. After decades of oligarchic influence and systemic corruption that made Ukraine notorious as one of Europe’s most corrupt nations, NABU’s creation was long overdue. If Ukraine had a government consistently willing to investigate corruption on its own, there’d be no need for NABU.