Ukraine¶
The Ukrainian cases show wartime instruments aimed at a real enemy, and the difference between those aimed outward and those turned inward. The church law treats a tie to the aggressor’s church as a security matter but routes it through an expert body and the courts, and lets parishes return by cutting the tie. The law curbing the anti-corruption agencies used the same wartime footing against domestic oversight, and was reversed within days under pressure from the street and from partners abroad. The weakness is direction: powers held for the war are held by whoever governs.
The clerk’s briefs¶
From the clerks, for the Patrician’s eyes
Worth a look. Parishes and clergy tied to the aggressor’s church must cut the tie or close, believers who see no betrayal in their church find their loyalty in question, and the neighbour gains a persecution story. Anti-corruption investigators learned how quickly their independence can be removed, and the public learned that it can restore it. After the war, a government holding these powers could turn them on other ties and other critics; the habit of protest and the conditions of accession are what would stop it.
July 2025: Nine days of independence lost¶
On 22 July 2025 the Verkhovna Rada passed, and the president signed, a law that, according to Babel, let the Prosecutor General “take cases from NABU and entrust the investigation to other bodies”, act as “the de facto head of SAPO”, give NABU detectives “mandatory written instructions” and “independently close cases on suspicion of high-ranking officials”. It caused large protests. On 31 July parliament restored the agencies’ independence by 331 votes, and the president signed the new law the same day. NABU’s own report says the first law passed “in defiance of the position of civil society and international partners” and was reversed “due to strong public backlash”. The EU’s enlargement commissioner, Marta Kos, wrote that “The Rada corrected last week’s damaging vote undermining NABU’s & SAPO’s independence” and that the new law “restores key safeguards, but challenges remain”. The clerks note that the reversal came within nine days, from the street and from abroad together.
August 2024: The church and the aggressor¶
On 20 August 2024 the Rada voted by 265 to adopt a law under which, as Liga reported, “the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine are prohibited”, along with religious organisations whose leadership sits in the country waging war on Ukraine; organisations found affiliated cease their activities by court order, “but can be reinstated if they cease contact with the Russian Orthodox Church”. The parliamentary committee’s account describes an expert examination by the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, facts established “through a judicial procedure”, and says: “This law does not prohibit the activities of the UOC”. The clerks note that the law offers what the historical record’s lodges tried on their own, cut the tie and survive, but routes the question through an expert body and a court.