"People didn’t expect that it would be the youth who would come out in such numbers," said Anastasia Bezpalko, one of hundreds of people who took to the streets over the past week to protest the legislation.
"The youth simply realized that someone was trying to deceive them, and this very sharp sense of injustice emerged..." the 23-year-old told RFE/RL.
A day later, Zelenskyy did an about-face and proposed the new legislation to be introduced on July 31, saying he had heard the voice of the people and that the new bill will still address Russian-influence concerns, but not jeopardize the independence of anti-corruption bodies.
"NABU and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office in Ukraine remain the last institutions capable of telling, let's say, some very unpleasant truths about Zelenskyy's team," Ukrainian investigative journalist Yuriy Nikolov told RFE/RL's Current Time.
"For the first time in many years, NABU has refocused on its original mission: investigating corruption at the highest levels of government. This year, charges were brought against Oleksiy Chernyshov, the deputy prime minister, who is also a close family friend of the president -- the first lady, [Olena] Zelenska, is the godmother of his child," he added.
Key Zelenskyy aide Andriy Yermak welcomed the vote in comments posted on social media.
"We have a wonderful civil society, wonderful youth, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hears. There is a rapid dialogue between the authorities and society," he wrote.
Newly appointed Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko wrote "this is a direct and responsible response to the expectations of Ukrainian society and our European partners. "
Deep-seated corruption in Ukraine has held back support for Kyiv in some Western quarters.
The protests came as Ukraine looks to the United States and other Western allies to pressure Russia into peace talks to end more than three years of war that followed Moscow's full-scale invasion. [RFE/RL/VS]
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