UKRAINE’S SALVATION IS IN OUR HANDS

Україномовна версія

Regarding the list of priority reforms proposed to Ukraine

September 25 of this year The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv has issued a Statement on Proposed List of Priority Reforms.

As part of an ongoing dialogue with Ukraine and stakeholders in Ukraine’s future success, — the Statement reads, —- the United States provided a proposed list of priority reforms for discussion and feedback at the Multi-Donor Coordination Platform in Brussels. This list was provided as a basis for consultation with the Government of Ukraine and key partners as part of our enduring support to Ukraine and its efforts to integrate into Europe, a goal the United States strongly supports. The aim of the effort is to prioritize and consolidate reform steps with Ukraine and among key stakeholders. As President Biden said in his White House meeting with President Zelenskyy, “Just as we are committed to helping the Ukrainian people defend themselves now, we’re also committed to helping them recover and rebuild for the future, including supporting reforms that are going to combat corruption, creating an environment where businesses can thrive and where American and European businesses want to invest.”

According to “Ukrainska Pravda”, a letter with a list of reforms that Ukraine must implement in order to continue receiving aid to it was sent to the Coordination Platform of Donors, as well as to the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal and to the Office of the President of Ukraine. The changes should affect the functioning of the Supervisory Boards of state-owned businesses, anti-corruption bodies (the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, National Agency for Corruption Prevention, etc.), the High Council of Justice, and the judiciary in general, as well as changes in the work of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence and all law enforcement agencies.

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The statement of the US Embassy and the very list of proposed reforms caused a lively discussion in the Ukrainian segment of social networks.

“The White House has sent a letter with the reforms that Ukraine must implement in order to receive military aid.

Kurwa. What reforms?
We just need a victory today.

Moreover, the corruption component (not without their help) became the system-forming basis of the Ukrainian government during the entire post-colonial period.

The System needs to be changed here,” Serhiy Chaplygin wrote on his page.

“A week has passed since the US proposals on reforms in Ukraine.
And what?!
But nothing!
Zelenskyy and Yermak do not know where to start. The uneducated, inexperienced and ill-mannered leaders of our state continue to do what they are capable of. That is, nothing.
And this is very bad for the Armed Forces, for the state budget, for industry, for pensioners, for the people, for…
This is a dead end from which neither the OP, nor the Verkhovna Rada, nor the CMU know a way out.
The only state structure that fulfills its tasks is the Armed Forces.
Can give them the authority to rule the state?!” — writes Vasyl Khara.

There is really no reaction of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to this document; about the absence of such from his Office, from Verkhovna Rada, from Cabinet of Ministers, from the judicial branch of power, it is not necessary to speak. However, a fragment of a video from an interview with V. Zelenskyy is circulating on the Internet, in which he “explains to a foreign journalist with a nasty smile that the financial support of Ukraine’s allies is not stolen, he and his entourage only steal from the Ukrainian budget.”

In the same Internet, there is a figure with the amount of funds in US dollars that were taken offshore from Ukraine during the year and a half of the war, and which is times greater than the amount of financial and material aid that was provided to Ukraine by the allied countries united by Ramstein, together with humanitarian aid, which was collected around the world by the Ukrainian diaspora. To some, that amount will seem overstated, but in fact it may even be understated.

Meanwhile, the successes of Ukraine’s defenders on the fronts more than a thousand kilometers long slowed down, the war is becoming protracted and exhausting not only for Ukraine itself, but also for the allies.

It turns out that Ukraine is noticeably losing the support of neighboring countries, through which the supply of weapons, ammunition and humanitarian goods passes, as tensions arise in relations with them, caused by the absurd statements of the Ukrainian authorities, on the one hand, and the activation of pro-Russian factions within these countries, on the second The diplomatic front is not only slipping, but also collapsing.

On the information front, Ukraine has no success at all — there is not even a hint of military advantages. Moreover, the ostensibly Ukrainian, but Russian-speaking blogosphere is growing in number and becoming more active, drawing Ukrainians into the Russian information space. Ukraine is practically absent in the English-language information space. It reached an unprecedented situation in world history, when the authorities in Ukraine managed to persuade the US special services to jam the information resources of the Ukrainian diaspora in a country where the first amendment to the Constitution prohibits any restriction of freedom of speech.

Given the situation in Ukraine and with Ukraine, it is necessary to resort to urgent emergency actions to save Ukraine.

I will not discuss here the content of the demands or proposals expressed in the statement of the US Embassy in Ukraine, and in the document sent by the White House to the Donor Coordination Platform, as well as to the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal and to the Office of the President of Ukraine. A photocopy of the full “list of priority reforms for discussion and feedback” published in “Ukrainska Pravda” can be found below in the appendix to this article. This list speaks for itself and needs no comments.

Therefore, let’s go straight to the essence of what I want to say on this matter as an Ukraine citizen, as a person who lives the Ukrainian cause all his life, as the Ukrainians Worldwide Movement Organizational Committee Chairman.

So what should be done?

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a legitimate, freely elected president. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is also legitimate, elected in free elections. We will not discuss the virtues and shortcomings of the president and people’s deputies. Before the elections, it is necessary to work with them as they are. But their legitimacy must be used to the maximum.

How?

The office of the president is an institution that ensures the activities of the president and whose activities are regulated exclusively by presidential decrees. Consequently, this structure is most amenable to rapid and effective change. It is the OPU that must be changed immediately and radically.

If President Zelenskyy sincerely wishes good for Ukraine, he will immediately by his decree form a completely independent commission with the participation of Ukrainocentric, patriotic, professional and decent public figures of Ukraine and the diaspora, who have never received state awards, whose task will be: to announce an open competition for all positions in the OPU , and therefore in the government.

V. Zelenskyy should take this step and, with the help of this commission, completely renew full-time and part-time employees and advisers of the OPU. It can and should be done in a month or a half.

The same commission will be able to choose candidates for the positions of prime minister, vice prime ministers, ministers and their deputies in the same way. We hope that V. Zelenskyy still has enough influence on the Verkhovna Rada so that the new members of the Cabinet of Ministers will be approved by the People’s Deputies. A couple of months will be enough for this.

At the same time and in the same way, it is possible and necessary to make appropriate changes in the judicial branch of power and in law enforcement agencies, as required by the USA and the EU. This requires desire and political will.

For ethical reasons, members of the proposed commission will refrain from holding official positions in the Office of the President and the government of Ukraine, but will be able to continue working with the president and government as advisers, provided that their opinions are listened to.

President Zelenskyy’s reluctance and lack of political will to take the proposed step will give enough grounds to suspect him of sabotage, aiding enemy forces and criminals, and other unrighteous actions that may have not only political, but also criminal consequences.

By refusing or unwilling to make such a change, President Zelenskyy is actually signing a sentence for himself as a politician and a citizen, the consequence of which may be inevitable criminal prosecution after the end of his term.

We can help in the formation and organization of the work of the proposed commission, as well as in the selection and placement of Ukrainian-centric, patriotic, professional and decent personnel using a special methodology.

Expressing these proposals and recommendations, we hope that their implementation will become an important stage of preparation for the next presidential and Verkhovna Rada elections, as well as the first step towards systemic structural changes in Ukraine.

The maximum possible distribution of this text, as well as its active discussion, is encouraged. On this and other sites affiliated with me, you can find a number of my more recent publications that relate to the topic discussed. They have not lost their relevance, on the contrary, they complement and detail what was said above.