MOSCOW, July 22. /TASS/. Rallies are being held already in seven Ukrainian cities in protest of a controversial law effectively stripping the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office of their independent status.

Protests began earlier on Tuesday in Kiev, Lvov, Dnepr (formerly known as Dnepropetrovsk), Odessa, Poltava, and Ternopol. Later, according to the Ukrainian Obshchestnennoye news outlet, the city of Rovno also saw protests.

Protesters in Kiev also demanded the resignation of Vladimir Zelenky’s office head Andrey Yermak.

On Tuesday, the Verkhovna Rada passed a law eliminating the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office by a majority of 263 votes. Parliament speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk has signed the law. Some lawmakers have said that the law has already been inked by Vladimir Zelensky but there is no confirmation of that on the Rada’s website.

Under the law, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office will be under the authority of the prosecutor general, who will be able to influence the activity of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. Apart from that, the law lifts the ban on transferring cases from the Bureau to other agencies, which means that the prosecutor general will be able to exempt cases from the Bureau and transfer them to other prosecutors. According to the Ukrainian media, this law will seriously impact the work of both the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, which controls tax returns.