“Bright Day” and a call for “decolonization”: Yulia Tymoshenko advocated dismantling external control over Ukrainian institutions

On July 22, 2025, the Verkhovna Rada adopted draft law No. 12414 as a whole, granting the Office of the Prosecutor General new powers that directly affect the activities of two key anti-corruption structures — the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP). 263 deputies voted for this initiative. The vote itself took place the day after a large-scale scandal: the SBU, SBU and the Prosecutor General’s Office conducted more than 70 searches of NABU employees due to the discovery of a Russian “mole” in one of the divisions. These events became a political breaking point, which allowed a number of political forces to attack the independence of the anti-corruption vertical. The central figure of this attack was Yulia Tymoshenko.

The leader of the “Batkivshchyna” party, Yulia Tymoshenko, during the discussion of draft law No. 12414 and at the meeting of the Verkhovna Rada performed with criticism of independent anti-corruption structures, international supervision in the state administration system and called for the repeal of all laws that provide for the participation of foreign advisory and supervisory councils. She marked her performance with the symbolic formula: “Today is a bright day.” For Tymoshenko, this vote was the “first step” towards the “restoration of Ukraine’s sovereignty” and the “liquidation of the colonial model”, which, in her opinion, was imposed on the country through the mechanisms of external governance.

Yulia Tymoshenko harshly criticized the participation of international experts in the creation and supervision of anti-corruption institutions. She called it “colonization” and accused the initiators of betraying national sovereignty. In her speech, she also used the rhetoric of the “shadow government”, which, in her opinion, was able to control key decisions in the state through anti-corruption institutions without any responsibility to the Ukrainian people.

“Today is a bright day for me in the parliament, because for the first time you have convinced me that the colonization of Ukraine is not a panacea for all our problems. The panacea for our problems is a clear, constitutional and balanced government, not what we are offered as a surrogate instead of the Constitution. And therefore, dear friends, we should not pass off the transformation of Ukraine into a lawless colony as patriotism.”, – emphasized the leader of “Batkivshchyna”.

She expressed hope that this is only the first decision that will bring Ukraine closer to restoring its sovereignty.

“I want to ask the Verkhovna Rada today not to stop at this vote, but step by step to repeal all laws where international advisory councils and international supervisory councils were applied, because this deprives Ukraine of its sovereignty. And I believe that this will be the right step. We may disagree with our government, we may disagree with the president, but the key word is our constitutional authority. And if we go this way, then we have the right to re-elect her. And if we go the way of outsourcing the country, we will never have the right to re-elect the government. Our sovereignty and colonial country will be destroyed.” Yulia Tymoshenko added.

Yulia Tymoshenko returned to the topic of the anti-corruption vertical, which was formed by the parliament and the government with the support of international partners. She recalled that “Batkivshchyna” supported the creation of NABU and SAP, but, in her opinion, this not only did not reduce the level of corruption in the country, but on the contrary – increased it.

“At the time when the “anti-corruption backbone” was built in our country, corruption in the country reached such a level that it had never been seen before. So tell me, please, is this “anti-corruption backbone” doing something in the country or not? Dear friends, I understand that grants must be used for someone, I have no doubts, but not so rudely, not so brazenly, not so unconstitutionally and without driving Ukraine into a colony for decades to come.” – said the head of the faction indignantly.

“The panacea for all our problems is a clear constitutionally balanced government,” Tymoshenko said, directly implying that the role of foreigners in the formation of supervisory boards was not just a mistake, but a direct violation of the constitutional rights of citizens.

She publicly called on parliament to repeal all regulations legitimizing international advisory and supervisory councils, effectively proposing to return the country to a governance model in which all levers of control are concentrated in the hands of Ukrainian political elites — regardless of their reputation or effectiveness.

Yulia Tymoshenko called on those present to “stop trying to please someone, to play along, to support laws about multibillion-dollar loans that should be given to all of us,” and instead to pass the law, because “we are not talking about anti-corruption structures, but about the shadow government, which manages all processes in whose interests it is unknown.”

According to her, anti-corruption structures were guided in their work by the “own-other” principle, which is why Ukrainians did not see criminal cases based on the results of the reports of the control bodies.

“As a normal team, we thought: maybe we will have a real fight against corruption? But look: where is Kobolev with a lot of corruption, where are the criminal cases? Do you know why they are not there? Because there was a selective fight against corruption.” – said the leader of “Batkivshchyna”.

In her opinion, the lack of criminal cases related to billion-dollar corruption schemes at state-owned enterprises based on the results of audits is also a reason for disappointing conclusions: “There is no anti-corruption case, because these corporations have foreign supervisory boards.”

Yulia Tymoshenko also reminded that the deputies of the faction repeatedly emphasized the illegality of the formation of state authorities by international advisory councils, and the “Batkivshchyna” faction sent a number of constitutional submissions to the KSU in this regard.

So, the leader of the “Batkivshchyna” party did not just support the draft law, but used its consideration as a platform for a loud political manifesto directed against the very principle of external participation in the formation of anti-corruption infrastructure in Ukraine. Her speech was accompanied by loud applause from the deputies, in particular representatives of the “Servant of the People” who, despite their declared commitment to the principles of the anti-corruption fight, voted in unison with the leader of the opposition party that day.