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| - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday called the constitutional court's move to block anti-corruption laws a "devastating" blow and said lawmakers should prepare bills to restore the legislation. The court on Wednesday said that a number of anti-corruption laws were unconstitutional, including one on free public access to officials' asset declarations, in a move that sparked an outcry in the ex-Soviet country. Zelensky convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Council, saying lawmakers should prepare new bills to undo the damage and they should then be debated by parliament "immediately." The president also asked the country's law enforcement agencies to investigate the circumstances that led to what he called "a real threat to the national security and defence". He said the problem should not be decided "in the streets", alluding to a possibility of protests over the hot-button issue. A protest against the court's decision was due to take place in the capital Kiev on Friday. On Thursday evening, the cabinet decided that Ukrainians would once again have free public access to officials' asset declarations, said government minister Oleg Nemchinov. "The devastating damage inflicted on the country's achievements in the effective fight against corruption in Ukraine cannot be ignored," Zelensky was quoted as saying in a statement earlier in the day. Zelensky, a 42-year-old former comedian, came to power last year pledging sweeping political change and to root out corruption. Eliminating graft was also one of the protesters' top aspirations during a pro-European uprising in 2013-2014 and remains one of Western donors' main demands. Ukraine dreams of joining the European Union one day and in 2017, Ukrainian nationals became exempt from visas for short-stay travel to the Schengen zone. In a statement on Thursday, G7 ambassadors said they were "alarmed by efforts to undo the anti-corruption efforts" and "stand with the Ukrainian people as they continue to fight" for democracy. "Too much progress has been made, Ukraine must not go back to the past," they added in the statement on Twitter. The EU has warned that the visa-free regime could be suspended if Kiev does not do enough to combat corruption, considered by the bloc to be the country's top risk. Ukrainian news website Yevropeiska Pravda published a letter from Kiev's EU envoy Mykola Tochytsky, warning that the court ruling was "a sufficient reason" for the European Commission to suspend the visa-free regime for the ex-Soviet country. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said for his part both the government and Zelensky were "absolutely" determined to find a solution. "Although the decision of the constitutional court is a serious blow, it still does not destroy our interaction with Western partners," Kuleba told an online briefing. "However, if we fail to overcome the negative consequences of this decision and ensure the proper functioning of the anti-corruption infrastructure, then we will have a problem," he added. After the 2014 popular uprising the West demanded tangible progress in Ukraine's fight against corruption, and Kiev authorities established various anti-corruption bodies such as the National Agency for Preventing Corruption and the specialised court. According to Transparency International, Ukraine ranked 126th out of 198 countries on the watchdog's corruption perception index in 2019. ant-osh/as/har
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