(Kharkiv, Ukraine) “Hainba! Hainba! »(Shame! Shame!) Had the crowd. Hanging on the immense bronze statues which stand in front of the Kharkiv Dance Conservatory, young activists from the Z generation, wrapped in Ukrainian flags, agitate large horny slogans.
On one, we can read: “Make love, but no corruption law”. On another: “at low law 12414”, in reference to a text voted this week by the Ukrainian Parliament, under the leadership of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
This law is perceived by many observers as a worrying decline since it removes the independence of two organizations responsible for the fight against corruption in the country, in war for more than three years.
Photo Louis Le Maire-Sicre, special collaboration
These young demonstrators denounce what they perceive as a disturbing decline in the fight against corruption in Ukraine.
These two agencies will now be subordinate to the Attorney General, himself appointed by the President. The law therefore replaces under the direct control of the Executive the National Bureau to Combat Corruption (NABU) and the Prosecutor’s Office Anti -Corruption (SAPO).
Several denounce the fact that this reform contradicts the heritage of the 2014 Maidan revolution, which had placed the fight against corruption and the separation of powers at the heart of Ukrainian democratic renewal.
If the European Union has expressed its concerns in the face of this development, it is especially Ukrainian civil society which, in all the cities of the country, and for the first time since the start of the war, has come down to the street to oppose its own president.
For the time being, after having ratified the law, President Zelensky tried to appease the popular discontent by promising the vote of a new text to guarantee the independence of the two organizations. This announcement, far from calming the crowd, only reinforced it in its determination to continue its action.
Maidan’s inheritance
Albina Kishishovskiy and her friend Lena, respectively aged 17 and 15, has been protesting for two days now. They met on the first day of mobilization. Armed with signs, the fist raised to the sky, they descended the Chevtchenko avenue to the Opera.
In chorus, they relentlessly chant songs, slogans and Ukrainian hymns.
Photo Iryna Matviyishyn, Collaboration Spéciale
Lena (left) and Albina (right) during the demonstration. On Lena’s sign, we can read ” #12 414 Go make you F …”, and on that of Albina: “New policy – old prosecutors”.
Initially, the two teenagers had hesitated. In Kharkiv, just 30 kilometers from the front line, the Russian strikes, whether ballistic missiles or planing bombs, have become daily.
But faced with President Zelensky’s decision, neither Lena nor Albina could not resolve to stay at home.
Under the constant threat of the Russian strikes, they wonder: what today, the most liable to Ukraine? The advance of enemy tanks or the silent erosion of freedoms?
“And if we are silent, we will be destroyed. Destroyed. Destroyed, ”breathes Albina.
“I didn’t say it to my mother,” says teenager Albina with a smile. Short, ruffled hair, dressed in a T-shirt from the Rock Queen group and the arms covered with bracelets, she continues: “But I understood that if I do not go there, something much more serious than a simple strike would happen to us. So I’m here so as not to let this country sink. Because I want to see him prosper, not self -destruct. »»
Her new friend has also braved the risks to come and protest. Too young for having experienced Euromaïdan in 2014, the two teenagers feel the heirs of this founding movement.
“I dream of teaching the history of Ukraine,” says Lena. And I wondered: what a historian worthy of the name, who really likes his country, would remain silent? »»
A Ukrainian tradition of revolt
The last rays of the sun accompany the demonstrators. In the distance, a blood -colored sky mixes with the opaque smoke of a planing bomb fallen in the vicinity of the city.
Arseniy Novikov, 19, is advancing a calm step alongside a group of friends. In artistic residence near Kramatorsk, a hundred kilometers from Kharkiv, he made the trip with his collective to support the popular initiative in his hometown.
Photo Iryna Matviyishyn, Collaboration Spéciale
Arseniy Novikov, young graphic designer of Kharkiv, with his friends during the demonstration in front of the Kharkiv Opera
We are tired of seeing the story repeat. But the Ukrainians do not spare their efforts. They know that power must be monitored. Those who govern us do not seem to have understood it yet. So, we are there to show them that their private interests will not triumph.
Arseniy novikov
According to him, in Ukraine, politics is not yet structured to serve citizens; The construction of a real democratic system remains unfinished.
Albina Kishishovskiy sees in this event, mainly carried by their generation, an encouraging sign for Ukraine of tomorrow.
“Even if we are very young, it is impossible not to be interested in politics today,” she says. It affects us too much. You can’t close your eyes, stay deaf. »»
Lena, her friend, adds. For her, it is always youth and students, in Ukraine as elsewhere in the world, which have been the spearhead of progress and popular movements. And this reality, she says, is even more palpable here.
With the collaboration of Iryna Matviyishhyn