KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Activists on Wednesday called for more protests of a new law that they say weakens Ukraine’s anti-corruption watchdogs, following the first major anti-government demonstration in over three years of war.

The legislation also has drawn rebukes from European Union officials and international rights groups, as well as putting increased pressure on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and endangering his public support at a critical phase of the war.

On Wednesday evening, the heads of the delegations from Russia and Ukraine met in Istanbul with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, according to Turkey’s HaberTurk television. It was not immediately clear whether this marked the start of the formal direct talks. Expectations for a breakthrough when the delegations themselves met were low.

In the morning, Zelenskyy convened the heads of Ukraine’s key anti-corruption and security agencies in response to the outcry against his decision to approve the law that was passed by parliament.

“We all hear what society says,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram after the meeting. But he insisted the new legal framework was needed to crack down harder on corruption.

“Criminal cases should not drag on for years without verdicts, and those working against Ukraine must not feel comfortable or immune from punishment,” he said.

Zelenskyy said all government agencies agreed to work constructively and respond to public expectations for fairness and effectiveness. A detailed joint action plan is expected within two weeks, aimed at addressing institutional weaknesses, removing legal hurdles, and ensuring justice across the board, he said.

Thousands of people gathered in the capital and other cities Tuesday to urge Zelenskyy to veto the controversial bill. After he approved it, activists went on social media to call for another demonstration Wednesday night in central Kyiv.

Zelenskyy has been the international face of Ukraine’s determination to defeat Russia’s all-out invasion, and his domestic troubles are an unwelcome diversion from the war effort.

The legislation tightens government oversight of two key anti-corruption agencies. Critics say the step could significantly weaken the independence of those agencies and give Zelenskyy’s circle greater influence over investigations.

EU officials warn of possible setback to joining bloc

Fighting entrenched corruption is crucial for Ukraine’s aspirations to join the EU and maintain access to billions of dollars in Western aid in the war.

“Limiting the independence of Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency hampers Ukraine’s way towards the EU,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul warned in a post on X.

EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius, also on X, noted: “In war, trust between the fighting nation and its leadership is more important than modern weapons — difficult to build and to keep, but easy to lose with one significant mistake by the leadership.”

The Ukrainian branch of Transparency International criticized the parliament’s decision, saying it undermines one of the most significant reforms since 2014, when Ukrainians ousted a pro-Moscow president in what they called the Revolution of Dignity, and damages trust with international partners. It accused authorities of “dismantling” the country’s anti-corruption architecture.

Zelenskyy said the new law clears out “Russian influence” from fighting corruption and ensures punishment for those found guilty of it. He cited years of delays in criminal proceedings involving huge amounts of money.

“The cases that have been lying dormant must be investigated,” he said in a Telegram post early Wednesday. “For years, officials who have fled Ukraine have been casually living abroad for some reason –- in very nice countries and without legal consequences -– and this is not normal,” he said.

He didn’t give examples of what he said was Russian interference.

The legal changes in Ukraine would grant the prosecutor general new authority over investigations and cases handled by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO).

Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, appointed by Zelenskyy just over a month ago, said the anti-corruption watchdogs and other law enforcement agencies would keep working as before.

“The prosecutor general has only been granted broader powers and an increased scope of authority,” Kravchenko told a news conference as officials moved to ease public concern.

The anger and frustration among war-weary Ukrainians prevailed in the crowd Tuesday. Some protesters accused Ukraine’s leadership of prioritizing loyalty and personal connections over fighting corruption.

“Those who swore to protect the laws and the constitution have instead chosen to shield their inner circle, even at the expense of Ukrainian democracy,” said veteran Oleh Symoroz, who lost both legs after he was wounded in 2022.

Russian officials relished Zelenskyy’s difficulties, although Moscow faces its own series of corruption cases against government and military officials.

A third round of direct talks on the war

The third direct meeting between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Turkey in as many months wasn’t expected to make progress on ending the war and would likely focus on further exchanges of prisoners of war.

Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian delegation in Istanbul “will again insist on the need for an immediate and complete ceasefire, including … strikes on civilian infrastructure.”

Russian drone strikes knocked out power to more than 220,000 customers in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, Zelenskyy said on Telegram, adding that repairs restored most of the supply in hours.

Ukrainian and Western officials have accused the Kremlin of stalling in the talks in order for its bigger army to capture more Ukrainian land.

Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Russia with severe economic sanctions and said more American weapons, paid for by European countries, would go to Ukraine. Trump hardened his stance toward Moscow after months of frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin about unsuccessful talks for a ceasefire.

Trump gave Russia until early September to agree to a ceasefire.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

BEIRUT (AP) — A U.S. envoy doubled down on Washington’s support for the new government in Syria, saying Monday there is “no Plan B” to working with the current authorities to unite the country still reeling from a nearly 14-year civil war and now wracked by a new outbreak of sectarian violence.

He took a critical tone toward Israel’s recent intervention in Syria, calling it poorly timed and saying that it complicated efforts to stabilize the region.

Tom Barrack, who is ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria and also has a short-term mandate in Lebanon, made the comments in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press during a visit to Beirut. He spoke following more than a week of clashes in the southern province of Sweida between militias of the Druze religious minority and local Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes.

Syrian government forces intervened, ostensibly to restore order, but ended up siding with the Bedouins before withdrawing under a ceasefire agreement with Druze factions. Hundreds have been killed in the fighting, and some government fighters allegedly shot dead Druze civilians and burned and looted their houses.

In the meantime, Israel intervened last week on behalf of the Druze, who are seen as a loyal minority within Israel and often serve in its military. Israel launched dozens of strikes on convoys of government forces in Sweida and also struck the Syrian Ministry of Defense headquarters in central Damascus.

Over the weekend, Barrack announced a ceasefire between Syria and Israel, without giving details. Syrian government forces have redeployed in Sweida to halt renewed clashes between the Druze and Bedouins, and civilians from both sides were set to be evacuated Monday.

US envoy says Israeli intervention ‘came at a very bad time’

Barrack told the AP that “the killing, the revenge, the massacres on both sides” are “intolerable,” but that “the current government of Syria, in my opinion, has conducted themselves as best they can as a nascent government with very few resources to address the multiplicity of issues that arise in trying to bring a diverse society together.”

Regarding Israel’s strikes on Syria, Barrack said: “The United States was not asked, nor did they participate in that decision, nor was it the United States responsibility in matters that Israel feels is for its own self-defense.”

However, he said that Israel’s intervention “creates another very confusing chapter” and “came at a very bad time.”

Prior to the conflict in Sweida, Israel and Syria had been engaging in talks over security matters, while the Trump administration had been pushing them to move toward a full normalization of diplomatic relations.

When the latest fighting erupted, “Israel’s view was that south of Damascus was this questionable zone, so that whatever happened militarily in that zone needed to be agreed upon and discussed with them,” Barrack said. “The new government (in Syria) coming in was not exactly of that belief.”

The ceasefire announced Saturday between Syria and Israel is a limited agreement addressing only the conflict in Sweida, he said. It does not address the broader issues between the two countries, including Israel’s contention that the area south of Damascus should be a demilitarized zone.

In the discussions leading up to the ceasefire, Barrack said “both sides did the best they can” to came to an agreement on specific questions related to the movement of Syrian forces and equipment from Damascus to Sweida.

“Whether you accept that Israel can intervene in a sovereign state is a different question,” he said.

He suggested that Israel would prefer to see Syria fragmented and divided rather than a strong central state in control of the country.

“Strong nation states are a threat — especially Arab states are viewed as a threat to Israel,” he said. But in Syria, he said, “I think all of the the minority communities are smart enough to say, we’re better off together, centralized.”

A Damascus deal with Kurdish forces still in play

The violence in Sweida has deepened the distrust of minority religious and ethnic groups in Syria toward the new government in Damascus, led by Sunni Muslim former insurgents who unseated Syria’s longtime autocratic ruler, Bashar Assad, in a lightning offensive in December.

The attacks on Druze civilians followed the deaths of hundreds of civilians from the Alawite minority to which Assad belongs earlier this year in sectarian revenge attacks on the Syrian coast. While interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa has promised to protect minorities and punish those who target civilians, many feel his government has not done enough to stop such attacks and hold perpetrators accountable.

At the same time, Damascus has been negotiating with the Kurdish forces that control much of northeast Syria to implement an agreement that would merge the U.S.-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces with the new national army.

Barrack, who spoke to SDF leader Mazloum Abdi over the weekend, said he does not believe the violence in Sweida will derail those talks and that there could be a breakthrough “in the coming weeks.”

Neighboring Turkey, which wants to curtail the influence of Kurdish groups along its border and has tense relations with Israel, has offered to provide defense assistance to Syria.

Barrack said the U.S. has “no position” on the prospect of a defense pact between Syria and Turkey.

“It’s not in the U.S.’s business or interest to tell any of the surrounding nations with each other what to do,” he said.

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Turkish Cypriots on Sunday celebrated Turkey’s military invasion of Cyprus that cleaved the island nation along ethnic lines 51 years ago. Turkey’s president reaffirmed his full backing for a controversial peace deal that envisions the establishment of two separate states.

It’s a proposal that the majority Greek Cypriots in the island’s internationally recognized southern part reject out of hand. It would formalize Cyprus’ partition and give Turkey a permanent foothold they see as a bid for control of the entire, strategically situated country and its offshore hydrocarbon wealth.

“Our support for (Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar’s) vision for a two-state solution is absolute,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in remarks to a crowd during celebrations that culminated with a military parade. It was scheduled this year for the evening to avoid the worst of the scorching mid-summer’s heat.

“It is time for the international community to come to terms with the facts on the ground,” Erdogan added, urging the international community to establish diplomatic and economic relations with the breakaway state in Cyprus’ northern third that Turkish Cypriots declared in 1983.

Turkey’s invasion came in the immediate aftermath of a coup staged by Athens junta-backed supporters of uniting Cyprus with Greece. Currently, only Turkey recognizes the Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence and maintains 35,000 troops in the north.

Erdogan’s renewed support for a two-state deal came just days after Tatar, the island’s Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, the foreign ministers of ‘guarantor’ powers Greece and Turkey, and Britain’s minister of state for Europe gathered at U.N. headquarters in New York for meetings with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to end an eight-year moratorium on formal peace negotiations.

The meeting achieved little in the way of a return to fully fledged negotiations as Tatar insisted on recognition for the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state as a prerequisite. The meeting did, however, achieve some progress on a number of confidence-building measures such the exchange of cultural artifacts and the setting up of an advisory committee on civil society.

Guterres said he’ll meet again with Tatar and Christodoulides in September and hold another wider meeting after a Turkish Cypriot leadership election in October in which Tatar is running on a two-state platform.

Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots insist a two-state deal is the only way forward because decades of U.N.-mediated peace talks based on a U.N. Security Council endorsed framework of reunifying Cyprus as a federation no longer had any meaning.

That switch came after the last big push for a peace accord in the summer of 2017. It fell through on what Greek Cypriots said was a Turkish and Turkish Cypriot insistence on keeping a permanent Turkish troop presence on the island and enshrining military intervention rights for Turkey as part of any deal. Greek Cypriots also rejected a demand for blanket veto powers for the minority Turkish Cypriots on all government decisions.

In the south where Greek Cypriots commemorated the invasion with solemn memorials to the war dead, Christodoulides said the international community gives no support to a two-state deal. He said Turkey’s continuing “occupation of European territory” subverts its ambitions for closer European Union ties and undermines the role it wishes to play in the region.

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgarian border authorities said Sunday they have seized one of the largest hauls of cocaine from a Belgian-plated van en route to Turkey.

According to customs officials, the nearly 206 kilograms (453 pounds) of cocaine was the largest seizure at Bulgaria’s land border. A vehicle inspection led to the discovery of the drugs valued at 20 million euros ($22 million). The drugs were hidden in 179 sealed bags stashed among personal belongings in five suitcases.

Haskovo District Prosecutor Ivan Stoyanov identified the three people attempting to cross the border into Turkey as a 40-year-old diplomat from the Democratic Republic of Congo accredited in Belgium, a 54-year-old Belgian citizen and a 43-year-old Bulgarian driver.

Stoyanov told reporters that they could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted on drug trafficking charges.

An investigation has been launched together with partner organizations in other EU countries into the origins of the cocaine and its final recipients.

Bulgaria, which has taken steps in recent years against drug trafficking, is considered a transit point on the Balkan drug-trafficking route, which is used to supply Western Europe with heroin from Asia and the Middle East, and with cocaine from Latin America.

BEIRUT (AP) — An eruption of violence in Syria this week that entangled government forces, Bedouin tribes, the Druze religious minority and neighboring Israel highlighted just how combustible the country remains seven months after its longtime authoritarian leader was toppled.

The Druze and other minorities increasingly mistrust a central government run by a man once affiliated with al-Qaida, even though he has pledged to protect Syria’s diverse ethnic and religious groups since helping to oust Bashar Assad after a nearly 14-year civil war.

This sectarian turbulence within Syria threatens to shake-up postwar alliances and exacerbate regional tensions, experts say. It could also potentially draw the country closer to Turkey and away from Israel, with whom it has been quietly engaging since Assad’s fall, with encouragement from the Trump administration.

The spark for this week’s violence

Deadly clashes broke out last Sunday in the southern province of Sweida between Druze militias and local Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes.

Government forces intervened, ostensibly to restore order, but ended up trying to wrest control of Sweida from the Druze factions that control it.

Hundreds were killed in the fighting, and some government fighters allegedly executed Druze civilians and burned and looted their houses.

Driven by concerns about security and domestic politics, Israel intervened on behalf of the Druze, who are seen as a loyal minority within Israel and often serve in its military.

Israeli warplanes bombarded the Syrian Defense Ministry’s headquarters in central Damascus and struck near the presidential palace. It was an apparent warning to the country’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who led Islamist rebels that overthrew Assad but has since preached coexistence and sought ties with with the West. The Israeli army also struck government forces in Sweida.

By Wednesday, a truce had been mediated that allowed Druze factions and clerics to maintain security in Sweida as government forces pulled out — although fighting persisted between Druze and Bedouin forces. Early Saturday, U.S. envoy to Syria Tom Barrack announced a separate ceasefire had been brokered between Israel and Syria.

Worsening ties with minorities

This past week’s clashes aren’t the first instance of sectarian violence in Syria since the fall of Assad.

A few months after Assad fled and after a transition that initially was mostly peaceful, government forces and pro-Assad armed groups clashed on Syria’s coast. That spurred sectarian attacks that killed hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority to which Assad belongs.

Those killings left other minority groups, including the Druze in the south, and the Kurds in the northeast – who have a de facto autonomous area under their control — wary that the country’s new leaders would protect them.

Violence is only part of the problem. Syria’s minority groups only have been given what many see as token representation in the interim government, according to Bassam Alahmad, executive director of Syrians for Truth and Justice, a civil society organization.

“It’s a transitional period. We should have a dialogue, and they (the minorities) should feel that they’re a real part of the state,” Alahmad said. Instead, with the incursion into Sweida, the new authorities have sent a message that they would use military force to “control every part of Syria,” he said.

“Bashar Assad tried this way,” and it failed, he added.

On the other hand, supporters of the new government fear that its decision to back down in Sweida could signal to other minorities that it’s OK to demand their own autonomous regions, which would fragment and weaken the country.

If Damascus cedes security control of Sweida to the Druze, “of course everyone else is going to demand the same thing,” said Abdel Hakim al-Masri, a former official in the Turkish-backed regional government in Syria’s northwest before Assad’s fall.

“This is what we are afraid of,” he said.

A rapprochement with Israel may be derailed

Before this week’s flare-up between Israel and Syria, and despite a long history of suspicion between the two countries, the Trump administration had been pushing their leaders to post-Assad to work toward normalizing relations – meaning that Syria would formally recognize Israel and establish diplomatic relations, or at least enter into some limited agreement on security matters.

Syrian officials have acknowledged holding indirect talks with Israel, but defusing decades of tension was never going to be easy.

After Assad’s fall, Israeli forces seized control of a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone in Syria and carried out airstrikes on military sites in what Israeli officials said was a move to create a demilitarized zone south of Damascus.

Dareen Khalifa, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group, said she believes Israel could have gotten the same result through negotiations.

But now it’s unlikely Syria will be willing to continue down the path of reconciliation with Israel, at least in the short term, she said.

“I don’t know how the Israelis could expect to drop bombs on Damascus and still have some kind of normal dialogue with the Syrians,” said Colin Clarke, a senior research fellow at the Soufan Center, a New York-based organization that focuses on global security challenges. “Just like Netanyahu, al-Sharaa’s got a domestic constituency that he’s got to answer to.”

Yet even after the events of this past week, the Trump administration still seems to have hope of keeping the talks alive. U.S. officials are “engaging diplomatically with Israel and Syria at the highest levels, both to address the present crisis and reach a lasting agreement between two sovereign states,” says Dorothy Shea, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Shea said during a U.N. Security Council emergency meeting on Thursday that “the United States did not support recent Israeli strikes.”

Syria could be drawn closer to Turkey

During Syria’s civil war, the U.S. was allied with Kurdish forces in the country’s northeast in their fight against the Islamic State militant group.

But since Assad’s fall, the U.S. has begun gradually pulling its forces out of Syria and has encouraged the Kurds to integrate their forces with those of the new authorities in Damascus.

To that end, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces agreed in March to a landmark deal that would merge them with the national army. But implementation has stalled. A major sticking point has been whether the SDF would remain as a cohesive unit in the new army or be dissolved completely.

Khalifa said the conflict in Sweida is “definitely going to complicate” those talks.

Not only are the Kurds mistrustful of government forces after their attacks on Alawite and Druze minorities, but now they also view them as looking weak. “Let’s be frank, the government came out of this looking defeated,” Khalifa said.

It’s possible that the Kurds, like the Druze, might look to Israel for support, but Turkey is unlikely to stand by idly if they do, Khalifa said.

The Turkish government considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a long-running insurgency in Turkey. For that reason, it has long wanted to curtail the group’s influence just across its border.

Israel’s latest military foray in Syria could give its new leaders an incentive to draw closer to Ankara, according to Clarke. That could include pursuing a defense pact that has been discussed but not implemented.

Turkish defense ministry officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity according to procedures, said that if requested, Ankara is ready to assist Syria in strengthening its defense capabilities.

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Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara and Farnoush Amiri in New York contributed to this report.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations chief said Thursday that he would have liked more results from his meetings with the rival leaders of divided Cyprus, while the Turkish Cypriot leader said he was “very, very upset” that there was no agreement on opening four new border crossings.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the meetings “constructive” and pointed to progress on four of the six initiatives that the leaders agreed to in March. He cautioned, however, that “there’s a long road ahead.”

The Mediterranean island was divided in 1974 when Turkey invaded following a coup by Athens junta-backed supporters of uniting the island with Greece. Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence, and it maintains more than 35,000 troops in the island’s northern third.

Negotiations between the rivals have been stalled since 2017. When asked whether he would start a new round, Guterres responded that there is more to be done before any negotiations. The current talks are “complex,” he said, stressing the very different views of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots on a solution.

“I think we are building, step by step, confidence and creating the conditions to do concrete things to the benefit of the Cypriot people,” the secretary-general said.

The agreed-upon, U.N.-endorsed framework for a peace deal has been a reunified Cyprus as a federation composed of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot zones.

Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar has been demanding a two-state deal ever since his 2020 election. He faces reelection in October and says he’s running on the same two-state platform with Ankara’s full backing.

Tatar told reporters after the meeting that “unless our sovereign equality and equal international status is reaffirmed, we will not resume formal negotiations for the resolution of the Cyprus problem.”

Greek Cypriots reject any agreement that would formalize partition, fearing Turkey would seek to control the entire island in light of its demand to maintain a permanent troop presence and military intervention rights in Cyprus. Turkey also insists the minority Turkish Cypriots should have veto rights over all federal government decisions.

Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides did not speak to reporters after the meeting, which included the foreign ministers of guarantor countries Turkey and Greece and a United Kingdom deputy minister.

Despite differences on the future of Cyprus, the rivals have made some progress on trust-building measures.

Guterres told reporters that four initiatives had been achieved: creating a technical committee on youth; initiatives on the environment and climate change, including the impact on mining areas; the restoration of cemeteries; and an agreement on demining, where technical details still need to be finalized.

He said discussions will continue on opening four new crossings between the Greek and Turkish sides of the island and on solar energy in the buffer zone between them, which is patrolled by a U.N. peacekeeping force.

Tatar accused Christodoulides of preventing the announcement of the four border crossings on Thursday by insisting that one of them go through the buffer zone, which he called unacceptable to Turkish Cypriots.

He also sharply criticized Greek Cypriots for pursuing legal action over the sale of properties in the Turkish Cypriot north, saying the moves “are certainly damaging to the relations of the two peoples and are aimed at damaging our economy and our tourism.”

Property rights are a deeply contentious issue in Cyprus. A recent boom in construction of luxury villas and apartments in the north has prompted Cypriot legal authorities to take a more assertive stance toward realtors and developers to discourage what they say is the large-scale “illegal usurpation” of Greek Cypriot land.

Guterres said the meeting also produced an understanding on a consultative body for civil society engagement, exchange of cultural artifacts, an initiative on air quality monitoring and addressing microplastic pollution.

The secretary-general said Tatar and Christodoulides agreed to meet with him in late September during the annual gathering of world leaders at the General Assembly and to hold another informal meeting later in the year.