Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told French President Emmanuel Macron that Ukraine’s EU accession bid should remain linked to Moldova’s in a wake of the passage of the controversial Law 21414 that guts Ukraine’s anti-corruption reforms and put Ukraine’s membership bid in danger.

“We agreed to work on finding solutions that will allow the first negotiation cluster to be opened as soon as possible. It is important that Ukraine and Moldova continue to move forward in sync,” Zelenskiy wrote on social media, as reported by European Pravda on July 26.

The bill passed on July 22 stripped Ukraine’s leading anti-corruption bodies National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) of their independence and put them under the direct control of the Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, a presidential appointee. The two agencies are part of a triumvirate that also includes the Anti-Corruption Court (ACC) that were set up in 2016 at the EU’s insistence to fight Ukraine’s endemic corruption.

The passage of Law 21414, passed in a single day after Rada deputies had been recalled by Bankova (Ukraine’s equivalent of the Kremlin) from their summer holidays, immediately sparked the first anti-government protests since the war with Russia started and a strong EU rebuke, which threatened to cut Ukraine’ funding and even endangered its EU membership bid. The law was likened to the Russian-style “foreign agents” introduced by Georgia in March that led to Brussels suspending Georgia’s EU bid.

Zelenskiy said he had held detailed discussions with Macron on the state of Ukraine’s European integration process over the weekend and also addressed the functioning and independence of Ukraine’s anti-corruption institutions. Following the swelling protests that went on all week, Zelenskiy has been forced into a humiliating climbdown and has introduced a new bill that he says will guarantee the independence of the anti-corruption organs and is due to be read on July 31.

Much is at stake with the vote on the new bill which is endangered by internal revolt by deputies from Zelenskiy’s own Servant of the People party that forced through Law 21414. Ukraine remains one of the most corrupt countries in Europe, overwhelmingly concentrated in the government.

Zelenskiy assured Macron that his updated anti-corruption presidential draft law “guarantees the independence and effectiveness of anti-corruption institutions and prevents Russian influence over them”.

One of the practical upshots of the fracas is that Brussels suggested delinking Moldova’s bid from Ukraine's already troubled accession process. Both countries were granted candidate status at the same time in 2022 shortly after the Russian invasion, however, the formal negotiations were only due to start this month. The decoupling was suggested to ensure that Moldova was not linked to Ukraine’s increasingly difficult relations with the EU as well Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s veto on Ukraine’s accession.

Moldova’s bid remains on track and is aiming to begin the formal negotiations on the six accession chapters before its parliamentary elections scheduled for September.

Hungary’s veto of Ukraine remains a problem, but the bloc remains hopeful that the deadlock may be resolved after Denmark assumes the rotating EU Council presidency later this year. EU foreign policy chief and former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas floated a Plan B to skirt Budapest’s objections that proposes to start the talks now, which doesn’t need a member state vote, and simply wait for Orban to leave office.

Zelenskiy also briefed Macron on the outcomes of the latest negotiations with Russia in Istanbul on July 23, the third such meeting in recent months. “We managed to agree on a new prisoner exchange. We are awaiting a response to our proposal to hold a meeting at the highest level by the end of August. Representatives from Europe must certainly be present at this meeting,” he said.

On defence cooperation following the Trump administration Nato-will-pay “big announcement” deal on July 14, Zelenskiy underscored the urgent need for strengthened air defence capabilities amid ongoing Russian missile and drone attacks. “First and foremost, strengthening our air defence. We need reliable protection against Russian missiles and drones. We talked about the supply of additional missiles for the SAMP/T and Crotale systems,” he stated.