MOSCOW, July 22. /TASS/. Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak said about 1,000 people took to the streets in Kiev for a protest against a bill that effectively eliminates the independence of Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.

"A 1,000-strong crowd gathered at the Franko Theater to say what they think about the liquidation of the bureau and prosecutor’s office," he wrote on Telegram.

The Ukrainian news outlet Strana earlier reported that protesters in Kiev used foul language to demand the resignation of Vladimir Zelensky's chief of staff Andrey Yermak. Currently, rallies against the controversial law are also taking place in the country's other largest cities, such as Dnepr, Lvov, Odessa, Poltava and Ternopol.

On Tuesday, the Ukrainian legislature adopted a bill that effectively eliminates the independence of the two agencies. The bill has already been signed by parliament Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk. Some Ukrainian lawmakers said the bill had already been signed by Zelensky, but there is no data on the parliament’s website to confirm this.

According to the bill, the Ukrainian prosecutor-general becomes the boss of anti-corruprion prosecutors, which puts him in charge of cases pursued by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. Also, the bill removes a ban on transferring cases from bureau to other agencies, so the prosecutor-general would now be able to take away the bureau’s cases and give them to other prosecutors. According to Ukrainian news reports, the bill would have a huge impact on the bureau and the anti-corruption agency.