A new law has caused uproar for a reason: it undermines the independence of anti-corruption bodies and is an affront to the people

For quite some time, foreign colleagues have been asking me about Ukraine’s democracy during wartime. Often these questions assume that political freedoms vanish by default in a country at war. They ask whether protests or critiques of the government are even possible.

Ukraine is a democracy at war – and democracy itself is an existential matter. It is precisely what the country is fighting for. My usual answer has been: “The people will know when it’s time to protest.” They will sense when too much power is being concentrated in security services, when parliament’s role is being bypassed, when the prime minister or members of parliament are no longer acting independently. Ukrainians, I would say, will know when red lines are crossed.

Nataliya Gumenyuk is a Ukrainian journalist and CEO of the Public Interest Journalism Lab