RKSL
The Frontline
July 25, 2025
The late governor of Texas, Ann Richards, once said that Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in high heels. That’s how the world expects Ukraine to operate. She is required to exceed the highest standards of Western democracy, only while under fire, while defending her survival, and while being watched for every possible misstep by people who have never had to learn the steps in the first place.
When the Verkhovna Rada passed Draft Law 12414, which placed Ukraine’s key anti-corruption institutions under the authority of the Prosecutor General, the backlash in Ukraine was immediate. The people who led the response were not legacy activists. They were young and most of them were born in a free and independent Ukraine. They know what democracy feels like, and they know what it looks like when it’s in danger of being taken away. Many of them have lost homes, friends, or family members to Russia’s war. They’ve watched their cities burn and yet they still show up for class. They’re demanding that the country they are fighting for remain worthy of the fight.
President Zelenskyy did something few leaders in the West have the discipline or humility to do. He listened to the people and acknowledged public concerns quickly and directly. Within days, he introduced a corrective bill and made clear that the voices in the street had not gone unheard. It was a reminder that democratic legitimacy, even during war, is not something you inherit or invoke. It is something you prove, again and again, under pressure.
Russia’s war against Ukraine is not only military. It is also informational, political, and psychological. It targets institutions, weakens trust, and injects distortion directly into the system. The anti-corruption sector is one of Moscow’s most consistent targets. It has been undermined by legal interference, media manipulation, leaked narratives, and pressure campaigns for years. When the Rada passed this law, it happened in that muddled landscape. But the nuance of Russian interference was immediately discarded. The misstep was treated as if it happened in a vacuum, with no external pressure and no internal complexity. The judgment from abroad was swift, cold, and scolding.
And yet, the same voices calling Ukraine’s democracy into question stay silent when actual impunity plays out on their own soil. In Washington, the Speaker of the House quietly dismissed Congress to prevent a vote on releasing the Epstein files. There was no floor debate, no protest, no reversal. And while that was happening, Donald Trump added billions to his personal fortune through a crypto deal quietly structured by political allies, with no oversight and no transparency. In Ukraine, students took to the streets and forced legislative correction within days. In the United States, the powerful protect each other and grow richer in silence.
The double standard is mind blowing. Ukraine is expected to maintain cleaner institutions, faster reforms, and higher accountability than countries that are not under occupation and not at war. She is not allowed to make mistakes. She is not allowed to legislate imperfectly. She is not allowed to exist in complexity. The people judging her could not withstand what she is being asked to survive. And yet, they keep judging.
That is what it means to be Ginger Rogers in the geopolitical ballroom. You have to do everything despite obstacles and in heels, while missiles fall and your allies critique your posture.
The young Ukrainian protestors are a sign of democratic health. The protests were not about factions or political parties or slogans. They are about the kind of country Ukrainians are still determined to build. The people in the street were defending the possibility of a state that respects its citizens and earns their trust. Even now. This is what reform looks like when it is being held together by people who refuse to give up.
And somehow, through all of it, Ukraine keeps her balance.
And she keeps dancing.