Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday backtracked on his controversial changes to the country’s anti-corruption agencies after outcry at home and abroad. 

On Tuesday, Zelenskyy signed into law a bill placing Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies under the authority of the president’s loyalist prosecutor general, which agencies said effectively destroyed their independence.

Two days later, Zelenskyy introduced another bill reverting the changes, after he said Wednesday night that he “heard the public opinion.”

The bill still has to be passed by the parliament, where, some activists warn, it risks being stalled by Zelenskyy’s own MPs.

The course reversal comes after Ukrainians poured onto the streets for the first anti-government protests since the beginning of Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, and European partners — similarly for the first time since 2022 — decried Kyiv’s actions. 

European officials warned that kneecapping anti-corruption agencies could cost Ukraine its financial aid and bid to join the European Union.

Earlier on Thursday, Zelenskyy was still insisting that anti-corruption agencies were inefficient and needed protection from “Russian influence” — citing allegations that some agents collaborated with Russia, which critics argue were merely a pretext to undermine the agencies’ independence. 

Thursday’s bill strips the prosecutor general of the new powers over the agencies and introduces minor safeguards for law enforcement, such as additional polygraph tests for agents.

Opposition MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak said the new checks, while not harmful, would have little impact as most are already in place. “They heroically solved the problems they had just as heroically created. Great imitators,” he wrote.