Why the 'NABU law' halts Ukraine's path to EU membership and whether Zelenskyy was aware of the consequences

A law signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday evening which dismantles the independence of Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), has dealt a body blow to the country’s European integration process.

President Zelenskyy, fully aware of the progress made within the EU, not only continued but intensified the attack on reforms.

The dismantling of the independence of NABU and SAPO crossed the EU’s red lines. At this point, the presence or absence of Hungary’s veto no longer matters. Ukraine has done the dirty work itself instead of Viktor Orbán.

Read more about the EU's plan to bypass Viktor Orbán's veto to unlock accession talks, as well as on the potential EU response to Kyiv’s violations, in the article by Sergiy Sydorenko, European Pravda's editor: How Zelenskyy undermined Ukraine's path to EU membership and what happens next.

Towards the end of 2024 and beginning of 2025, Brussels and several other member states were talking openly about their aim to open all six negotiating clusters with Ukraine by the end of the year.

Six months ago, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen began publicly reiterating this commitment.

Last spring, that promise had to be dropped from public rhetoric. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán began blocking Ukraine’s EU progress, making it the centrepiece of his election campaign. 

The process seemed to have reached a deadlock. For many in Europe, it was hard to grasp that Orbán wasn’t seeking concessions from Ukraine – the blockade was an end in itself, part of his domestic political strategy. But with the end of Poland’s presidency of the Council of the EU (Warsaw chaired the Council in the first half of 2025), things began to change.

The European Commission, the president of the European Council and several key member states had agreed on a plan to bypass Hungary’s veto, and in a rather unexpected way.

Instead, Denmark and the European Commission leadership proposed not holding a vote at all. The idea was that the EU presidency would apply to the European Commission and cite both the Commission’s position and the conclusion of the June EU summit that Ukraine had fulfilled all the necessary criteria.

Then the European Commission would simply announce the start of accession negotiations with Ukraine as if all the formalities had been met.

So Zelenskyy was aware of this unique opportunity and had been personally involved in discussions about it since the end of June. Yet the events that began to unfold after those agreements were reached left the Europeans asking WTF? What is going on?

In July, Ukraine’s government blatantly violated the law by rejecting the candidate who had been selected to head the Bureau of Economic Security (BEB) through a transparent, EU-supported procedure backed by international experts. 

On 11 July, law enforcement carried out raids and searches without a court warrant at the home of Vitalii Shabunin, a prominent critic of the President’s Office. The next day saw the absurdity of the mother of a fallen Hero of Ukraine, pilot Andrii "Juice" Pilshchykov, being subjected to searches purely because Shabunin had briefly stayed at her home.

On 14 July, it was announced that Olha Stefanishyna would be stepping down, which further undermined the prospects of opening EU negotiations. 

However, it has become clear that the anticipated breakthrough won't happen either.

According to European Pravda’s information, Denmark simply refrained from putting forward the proposal that had seemingly been agreed upon. The issue of the extent to which Moldova and Ukraine are prepared for the start of accession talks wasn’t even on the agenda for the 18 July meeting.

Several European Pravda sources maintain that the main obstacles to progress were internal EU dynamics.

Even the EU’s public reaction has been unusually harsh by recent standards – including from Commissioner Kos herself.

Kos said, the European Union views the passing of the law as a setback in implementing the seven European Commission recommendations that were a condition for Ukraine's candidate status.

All the other EU sources European Pravda spoke to before the law was signed had come to the same conclusion: if Volodymyr Zelenskyy signs the law (which he has now done), he is also signing off on the suspension of Ukraine's EU accession process.

The EU continues to operate under a de facto moratorium on publicly criticising Ukraine.

That’s why the EU is preparing to apply pressure through other means – particularly financial ones.