MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, says he will move to restore the independence of the country's anti-corruption watchdogs following protests against a controversial law he signed that would bring the agencies under his control. NPR's Joanna Kakissis reports.
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JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: Hundreds of protesters Wednesday night waved cardboard signs with handwritten messages to Zelenskyy near the president's office in Kyiv.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in non-English language).
KAKISSIS: Among them was Alina Bulochko (ph), a 39-year-old IT specialist.
ALINA BULOCHKO: This protest is not against President Zelenskyy personal. Yes, we are protecting our freedom, our democracy. Maybe he made a mistake. He shouldn't made it.
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KAKISSIS: The mistake, she says, is a new law that puts the country's two main anti-corruption agencies under the control of a prosecutor general backed by the president. Zelenskyy claims the agencies worked inefficiently and suggested that they had come under Russian influence. After the protests, though, he changed course.
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PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: In a video address, Zelenskyy said, everyone has heard what people are saying these days on social media, on the streets, to each other. All this is not in vain.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in non-English language).
KAKISSIS: Anti-corruption activists welcomed a new plan by Zelenskyy to restore independence to the anti-graft agencies, but lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak (ph) is skeptical.
YAROSLAV ZHELEZNYAK: Their social agreement between the citizens and government was - I don't want to say the broken, but significantly damaged.
KAKISSIS: Yurii Hudymenko, a sergeant with Ukraine's armed forces, runs the Anti-Corruption Council of Ukraine's Ministry of Defense. He says there's a special kind of social contract between the government and the public in wartime.
YURII HUDYMENKO: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "During the war," he says, "we hold back our criticism, and they hold their horses and don't try to build a dictatorship here."
Danylo (ph) Leshchynskyi, the platinum-haired lead singer of a popular band called Ziferblat, put it this way.
DANYLO LESHCHYNSKYI: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "This is not the storming of the Bastille," he says of the protests. "This is just a peaceful reminder that the Ukrainian people have the right to challenge their government."
Joanna Kakissis, NPR News, with reporting by Polina Lytvynova and Hanna Palamarenko in Kyiv.
(SOUNDBITE OF PICTURE TALK'S "DANGEROUS GROOVE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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