Street protests in Ukraine: causes, features and consequences

A protest in Kyiv against the limting of powers of Ukraine's two anti-corruption bodies on July 22, 2025. Photo: Vitaliy Holovin / Shutterstock

Eleven years ago, the Revolution of Dignity put an end to the uncertainty and “multi-vector” nature of Ukrainian politics and secured the European choice of the Ukrainian people. In the same year, the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU was signed and ratified. In the following years, the Free Trade Area and visa-free regime has come into effect; the course for EU membership has been included in the Constitution of Ukraine; and eventually the country received the status of a candidate country and began negotiations. Today, the European Union and its members are reliable partners of Kyiv in strengthening defence and financing the state budget during war time.

At all these stages, independent and effective anti-corruption institutions remain one of the key conditions for Ukraine’s European integration. They are not a technical detail, but a systemic requirement, one of the main criteria for assessing Ukraine’s progress on the path to EU membership and a symbol of compatibility regarding politics and values.

For the past 11 years, an unwritten agreement between the people and authorities has been in effect in Ukraine. This was centred on not rowing back on the gains achieved during the Revolution of Dignity — primarily the course toward Europe. While this agreement was in effect, people use to forgive every administration for a lot of mistakes, as the main idea was preserved. This idea is what the entire country is based on — the dream of a European, not a Russian, future.

In times of war, this meant self-restraint on the part of citizens. Despite the authorities’ mistakes, people would not criticize the government or enter into any kind of confrontation. The people understood the extraordinary challenges for the country and the lack of elections on the horizon.

The law that was adopted, which became a trigger for mass protests, eliminates the independence of anti-corruption bodies, turning them into units of an unreformed and politically dependent prosecutor’s office. It also significantly limits the effectiveness of these bodies’ work, depriving them of the opportunity to maintain the confidentiality of investigations.

In essence, this means the destruction of one of the most important factors that keep Ukraine’s doors to the European Union open. The law has challenged the trust and support from European partners, which is vital in times of war, and has threatened the Ukrainian dream of a better future that gives people strength both on the front and in the rear. Among other things, this creates grounds for rolling back the existing achievements of European integration and significantly increases the financial risks for the country.

The extremely rapid adoption of the law with numerous violations of the parliament’s regulations; pressure on members of parliament (and the fact that many MPs who are the subjects of the investigations voted with a clear conflict of interest); and immediate signing by the president while the laws most important for the country’s defence and budget have remained not signed for months, all looked like a sudden and decisive change in the country’s geopolitical course.

The effect of the unwritten social contract created the illusion among the authorities that there is not any public resistance, and this has led to the accumulation of errors. A critical mass has finally formed in recent months.

There has also been disruption regarding the reboot of the Bureau of Economic Security and the High Qualification Commission of Judges, as well as the application of politically motivated selective justice to public activists, military personnel, journalists, etc. This has created a feeling of returning to 2013, when Ukraine’s geopolitical and civilizational choice had not yet been made.

So, in the eyes of a large part of society, the social contract has been broken. For their part, people felt free before as they held up their half of the social contract.

People who took to the streets in all major cities in Ukraine (including those close to the front line, where daily shelling occurs), view the current events as a disruption of the course towards European integration, for which the high bloody price was paid not only during the Revolution of Dignity 2013-14, but also during the war to oppose Russian aggression aimed at changing Ukraine’s European choice. The rallies of thousands in major cities were spontaneous and genuine. This is what the people’s voice sounds like, the voice of dissatisfied citizens whose future is being stolen.

Old tradition, new features

I would like to emphasize that the street protests have been organized and populated not by traditional NGOs but by the next generation — very young people for whom the Revolution of Dignity in 2013-14 is history, a legend. They grew up in confidence in the immutability of the European course. At the same time, other generations joined, and many war veterans were visible. For the older ones, their key thought was expressed in blunt terms: “I can’t believe I still have to protest this shit.” For the younger ones, the key slogans were related to their feeling that their European and democratic dream was being taken away from them and instead they were being pushed onto the Russian authoritarian path (“Ukraine is not Russia,” “My father did not die for this,” etc.).

For the youth who form the core of the protest, this is the first political event in their life, it is their psychological initiation — their entry into adulthood and subjectivity. To some extent, they feel like they are continuing the tradition, and this is evidenced by the slogans of previous Maidan revolutions (1990, 2004-05, 2013-14) that occasionally emerge among the new ones.

An incredible new feature of the “cardboard revolution” is that almost every person is the bearer of his/her own creative slogan, and they want to be photographed and recorded. This is a manifestation of higher subjectivity, a Ukrainian take on “I am a drop in the ocean.” The light, joyful mood and confidence in strength contrast with the first days of Euromaidan in 2013, when a feeling of lost chances and “hopeless hopes” hung in the air.

Another important feature of the current protests is the noticeable increase in the value of institutions. The Orange Revolution in 2004-05 was for a political personality, while the Revolution of Dignity in 2013-14 was for civilizational choice. Now, the people are raising their voice for state institutions (although there are many complaints about the work of anti-corruption institutions). Protesters have clearly indicated their pro-state, not anti-state, position.

I would like to separately note that the progress of the police (from privates to generals) over 11 years is visible to the naked eye.

The protests showed the confusion of the authorities. The old political strategists do not know what to do with free people, born not in slavery, but in freedom. Sincerity cannot be faked.

The president’s legality (legal right to rule) remains unchanged in wartime, but his legitimacy (public recognition of the moral right to rule) has suffered greatly.

Unfortunately, the parliament showed insufficient subjectivity. It was the parliament that saved Ukraine from all the crises in its recent political history, but not now. Some MPs were intimidated, and some could not figure it all out under pressure. But also among the MPs there are some who are very outdated, mentally stuck at the beginning of the century, 20 years behind. It is as if they missed all the events of those times. People are studying and judging the behaviour of each specific MP. Some prestigious communities have expelled MPs from their ranks.

The protests saved Ukraine’s image in the West, which is vital for the country. Instead of the bad impression that Kyiv has rejected the fight against corruption and turned away from the European path, now there is an understanding that society and the political elite have diverged in positions in a democratic way and are now trying to resolve the problem.

For the first time, western observers have seen in Zelenskyy the person that Ukrainians are used to seeing: not a fantastic hero embodying all the virtues of the nation, but a living person with advantages and disadvantages, who suddenly faces the challenge of leading the resistance of millions of heroes. In the western consciousness, a decoupling of Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelenskyy has begun to occur.

Russia is in shock and has not yet digested what it has seen. On the one hand, they hope to use the protests to weaken Ukrainian unity, but they do not yet know how, because they do not understand Ukrainian society. On the other hand, their greatest fear, which has terrified them since the collapse of the USSR, has appeared before their eyes.

This is not the end of the story. Ukraine must emerge from this political crisis stronger, not weaker, and that is no easy task.

Postscript

All of the above was written before the parliament voted on the presidential law on restoring the independence of anti-corruption bodies. Under the simultaneous pressure of civil society and international partners, the political mistake was corrected.

Thus, Ukraine took the first important step towards overcoming the political crisis through activism, solidarity and wisdom. It can be said that the youth saved Ukraine’s loyalty to its European choice and democracy.

This is not the end, but the beginning. First, the independence of anti-corruption bodies was restored, but other simultaneously introduced deteriorations in the rule of law were not corrected. Second, Ukraine has missed a number of indicators and milestones in accordance with its obligations to the EU and international financial institutions. We have not yet returned to the point where we were before the crisis began. And we still do not understand who has learned what lessons from these historical events.

The minimum agenda, defined by civil society organizations and international commitments, includes: launching the reform of the Bureau of Economic Security and Custom Office; renewing the use of international experts in the High Qualification Commission of Judges; appointing selected judges to the Constitutional Court; rejecting problematic amendments to the Criminal Code; fully restoring television broadcasts from the parliament, including committee meetings; and introducing the timely signing of adopted draft laws by the president. The best way to fully overcome the crisis is political leadership in reforms, which will restore undermined trust both internally and externally.

Street protests in times of war are an extremely dangerous phenomenon. At the same time, they have to be resorted to when there are no other ways. The participants in the protests showed wisdom, solidarity and tolerance. All this would not have happened if a systematic dialogue had been established between the authorities, expert communities and civil society. If everything remains as it is, further mistakes are inevitable. At the same time, comparing the current situation with the previous mass protests of past decades shows how incredibly Ukrainian society has grown.

Valerii Pekar is a chairman of the board of Decolonization NGO, the author of four books, an adjunct professor at the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School and Business School of the Ukrainian Catholic University, and a former member of the National Reform Council.

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corruption, NABU, Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian politics, Ukrainian society, Verkhovna Rada, Volodymyr Zelenskyy