Late July and early August have been a time of political turbulence for Ukraine and Ukrainians.

The independence of anti-corruption bodies was first abolished and then restored — following protests and the reaction of the international community.

Earlier, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a law amending Ukraine’s legislation to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) and improve asset management mechanisms.

After that, the government appointed former NABU detective Oleksandr Tsyvinskyi as the new Director of the Bureau of Economic Security (BEB) — a decision the public had awaited for over a month after Tsyvinskyi’s victory in the competition for the post.

Later, the Cabinet of Ministers launched an open competition for the position of Head of the State Customs Service of Ukraine. According to First Deputy Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko, the competition commission includes representatives of Ukrainian business as well as international experts in anti-corruption and customs matters. This was another long-awaited step.

Restoring the independence of the anti-corruption infrastructure and the Cabinet’s appointment of the BEB Director are now a reality. While it is possible to spend time searching for reasons why this political crisis happened at all and who is to blame, in today’s circumstances it is much more important to focus on the next decisions, says Yurii Mykytiuk, Head of the Regional Programs Department of the RPR Coalition.

“Among such steps is, in particular, the lack of appointments of Constitutional Court judges from among the candidates selected through the competition. The delay in appointing Constitutional Court judges may not seem like a top priority to the general public, as this is not about specific names but about the institution itself. I would like to note that the appointment of Constitutional Court judges is one of the demands put forward by 130 civil society organizations to the authorities,” the advocacy manager adds.

As a reminder, the RPR Coalition previously published a statement where, together with more than a hundred CSOs, we called on public officials to strictly adhere to the Constitution of Ukraine, which defines the state’s strategic course toward full membership in the European Union and NATO.