KYIV-- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had approved key principles of "large-scale" US weapons agreements, while Ukrainian lawmakers geared up for a crucial vote on a bill designed to restore the independence of two agencies that fight graft.
Zelenskyy, in his July 30 nightly address, did not disclose details of the weapons agreement with the United States but said the move would "strengthen both countries."
"These are large-scale agreements, which I discussed with President [Donald] Trump, and I hope very much that we will be able to implement them all," Zelenskyy said without providing details.
"This will undoubtedly strengthen both of our countries, and therefore, our allies and our partners," Zelenskyy added.
Meanwhile, on the streets of multiple Ukrainian cities -- including Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhya, and Odesa -- hundreds of people called on lawmakers to approve a draft bill to strengthen powers of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO).
In the capital, Kyiv, some 400 people gathered, shouting slogans such as "Power is the people," "Corruption kills," and "Hands off NABU."
Parliament is due on July 31 to discuss the bill -- which marks a reversal of a law passed with unusual rapidity on July 22. That legislation was criticized for robbing NABU and SAPO of their autonomy by handing the Prosecutor-Generals’ Office control over the agencies, sparking major street protests.
The July 30 rallies were on a much smaller scale than those that took place immediately following Zelenskyy's signing of the original bill restricting the anti-corruption organizations' powers.
Zelenskyy, who signed the original legislation, said the move was needed to rid the agencies of Russian influence that had long made them susceptible to corruption.
But the limits on their independence enraged many Ukrainians -- especially younger people -- who immediately turned out for public protests even though Russian missiles and drones had rained down on Kyiv and other cities just hours earlier.
"People didn’t expect that it would be the youth who would come out in such numbers," said Anastasia Bezpalko, one of the protest coordinators in Kyiv.
"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.
"That turbo-mode of passing the bill and quickly signing it -- it just became the last straw, the moment when the youth understood that it had to be stopped and that they had to show the authorities that they do not agree with it."
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.
"Ukrainians have shown that they do not want reforms to be weakened and a return to autocratic methods," Oleksiy Haran, a political science professor at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, told RFE/RL adding that it won't be easy for politicians to restore trust after the turmoil sparked by the law.
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.
Trump has shown signs of growing frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin's refusal to agree to a cease-fire while at the same time pummeling Ukraine on an almost nightly basis with drone and missile strikes.
Trump on July 30 warned Putin that he had 10 days to reach a cease-fire deal or he will impose tariffs and other measures on Moscow.
Trump also said that a plan was in the works to send more weapons to Ukraine -- including the sophisticated Patriot air-defense missiles systems -- that would be paid for by Kyiv's European allies.
Ukraine’s outgunned and outmanned army is facing pressure on the ground as Russian forces are making new efforts to drive back Ukrainian defenders along a 1,000-kilometer front line in the east of the embattled country.
Ukrainian political scientist Volodymyr Fesenko said parliament has to approve the new anti-corruption bill or face even worse consequences.
"I think the president's office and the vast majority of parliament members understand that if the president's bill, which restores the procedural independence of NABU and SAPO, fails, the consequences will be much harsher than those after the original bill, which caused this crisis," he told Current Time.
Moreover, with Ukraine needing US military aid in its war to fend off Russia, Kyiv cannot afford a crisis over corruption.
"The key point is weapon supplies. I expect that, with new military packages for Ukraine, weapon supplies can be increased in 10 days," he said, referring to Trump's new 10-day deadline for Russia.
In his nightly address, Zelenskyy said the "whole issue comes down to resources for war, to money."
"That’s exactly why sanctions [against Russia] are useful. That’s exactly why pressure can work. We are also currently preparing our new talks and our new meetings with our partners at various levels."
On the economic front, the IMF on July 29 downgraded Russia's economy, saying it will likely grow at 0.9 percent this year from a previous forecast of 1.5 percent, the largest drop among major countries.
In a move on secondary sanctions, Trump said the United States will impose 25 percent tariffs on goods from India, and additional import taxes, because of New Delhi’s ties to Russia.
The Indians have "always bought a vast majority of their military equipment from Russia, and are Russia’s largest buyer of ENERGY, along with China, at a time when everyone wants Russia to stop the killing in Ukraine -- all things not good," Trump wrote on social media.
US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally and co-author of a bill on tough new economic sanctions against Moscow, responded to Kremlin statement suggesting Russia is not really hurt by such financial measures.
"Russia, you are right about sanctions. You managed to avoid them and you learned to live with them," Graham wrote on social media.
"Obviously, what you don't understand is that President Trump is a game-changer and is going to impose tariffs on countries that buy your oil and gas while propping up your war machine. Maybe you should contact these countries soon to see if they have the same frivolous attitude as you," he added.
Meanwhile, the violence continued on the ground. At least three people were killed in a Russian missile attack on the outskirts of Kharkiv, regional officials reported.
