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Pulse of The Week 5: Ukrainian public opinion on the issues of the day

by EUToday Correspondents
Pulse of The Week 5

Zelensky attended the summit of the European Political Community in Spain.

On October 4th, it became known that the Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sanchez invited the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi to the EU summit in Granada, Spain, on October 6th.

The meeting in Granada is an informal summit of the EU, which is to adopt a declaration containing political plans for the coming years. The summit is also scheduled to discuss reforms of the EU and acceptance of new countries.

According to Zelensky, “Ukraine participates, along with other nations in our common European home, for the sake of security and stability on the continent. There will be work in joint formats and important bilateral meetings.”

Strengthening of the existing security architecture in Europe, in particular the regional one, should also be discussed. And this is exactly where, as Zelensky noted, Ukraine has significant proposals. “This day should be fruitful for Ukraine and all of Europe,” the Ukrainian president added.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba noted that the president has already held several bilateral meetings. According to the minister, against the backdrop of the tragedy that took place in Kup’iansk – “yet another terrorist attack and the death of our citizens” – the key topic of the negotiations were anti-aircraft defense, anti-aircraft guns, as well as heavy systems, anti-drone weapons, means of radio-technical combat. That is, everything that will allow Ukraine to prevent such tragedies and suppress the ability of the Russians to bomb our peaceful cities and villages.

According to the results of the bilateral meetings of President Volodymyr Zelenskyi at the summit of the European Political Community in Granada, Spain, Ukraine will have more air defence systems.

Sources: Suspilne, Ukrinform, UNIAN, Radio Svoboda

 

The e-register of conscripts will start operating in Ukraine

Beginning October, an electronic register of conscripts will start operating in Ukraine, in which, supposedly, summonses may be sent to men online.

The register is going to cover almost all conscripted citizens and will greatly simplify the mobilization process. Its launch was announced by the Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov. According to him, the electronic database of conscripts is filled by more than 90%, and the system itself is fully protected.

The register of conscripts will contain personal and government services’ information necessary for military registration, for obtaining the status of PCA (Participant of Combat Actions) or “white ticket”. With the help of this data, it will be possible to have a man registered for military enlistment without his personal presence at the TCR (Territorial Center for Recruitment).

Data for the “Oberih” system will be supplied by four bases: the Ministry of Internal Affairs; Ministry of Finance; Ministry of Education and Science; State Service Administration. The TCR and the Security Service of Ukraine will have access to it. The data will be collected from various electronic registers, while the conscript himself will not be informed about the collection of information.

With the help of the electronic register, it will be much easier to keep records of conscripts, track their movement around the country and check the grounds for going abroad.

Regarding the possibility of serving electronic summons, the secretary of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, Roman Kostenko, noted that in order to implement such an option, it is necessary to finalize the mechanism and make changes to the legislation. In particular, to change the rules of military accounting.

Sources: BBC-Ukraine, Fakty, UNIAN

The US assures that military aid to Ukraine will persist

At the beginning of the week, the State Department expressed disappointment with the fact that the American Congress did not adopt a resolution on financing aid to Ukraine.

 

According to State Department official Matthew Miller, though
the US is able to support Ukrainians’ ability to defend themselves, they have exhausted a significant portion of
existing funding designated for security assistance.

Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, said that the previous American budget contained significant transitional funds, so there is no risk that the United States will stop funding aid to Ukraine. Also, according to Markarova, disputes over the allocation of budget funds are caused by the start of the American election campaign.

The administration of US President Joe Biden also assured that, despite the growing number of Republicans in Congress, military aid to Ukraine will continue. In order to inform allies about this, Biden and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken plan to call several of their colleagues in Europe.

As the European diplomat noted, Biden’s team is working on an agreement with Congress that will allow continued military aid to Ukraine.

Also during this week, information appeared that officials of the Biden administration are significantly concerned about the problem of corruption in Ukraine. The “confidential but unclassified” version of the US long-term plan emphasizes that corruption could force Western allies to refuse from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression, and that Kyiv cannot delay the fight against corruption.

Sources: Radio Svoboda, Ukrinform, UNIAN

A pro-Russian party won the elections in Slovakia

On September 30th, parliamentary elections were held in Slovakia, according to the results of which the populist party “Course — Social Democracy” (SMER-SD) won the majority of votes (23%).

The party is headed by former Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who previously stated that he was against helping Ukraine. After the victory, Fico also stated that “people in Slovakia have bigger problems than Ukraine.” The President of Slovakia, Zuzana Čaputová, entrusted Fico with the formation of a new government.

Second place was taken by the pro-European liberal party Progressive Slovakia (PS) led by Michal Šimeček (received 17% of the vote).

Later, there were reports that Slovakia’s Ministry of Defence considered the possibility of providing Ukraine with another package of military aid.

Ukrainians could get it while a new government is being formed and Ludovit Odor’s government is still operating. But President Zuzana Čaputová, who bears political responsibility for the government, opposed this intention.

According to the president, in regards to this matter it is necessary to respect the results of the parliamentary elections.

Experts predict that Bratislava’s withdrawal from supporting Kyiv will not reduce the flow of weapons to Ukraine, but will strengthen anti- Ukrainian voices in Europe.

Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the NSDC, advised European politicians and the European Union that they should watch closely the situation and processes. “As soon as Russian narratives appear on your territory, the Russian language, Russian history is completely slandered, you should know that sooner or later, it will affect your children,” Danilov noted.

Sources: Radio Svoboda, Suspilne, UNIAN

 

 

 

Zelensky has named the condition for holding elections in Ukraine

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, supposed it could be possible to hold elections during martial law.

According to the president, elections in Ukraine can be held if certain changes are introduced in the legislation and security for the participants of the vote is ensured.

“The situation is difficult, but elections in Ukraine can be held if the parliament manages to solve all the tasks of ensuring access to voting,” Zelensky said. At the same time, the president emphasized the importance of organizing the elections in a way that is safe for citizens, so that they are not exposed to attacks during the full-scale military aggression of the Russian Federation.

“This is the task we have, but if our country manages to make changes to the laws, then elections will be held in Ukraine,” he said.

 

Zelensky previously stated that Ukraine is ready to hold elections in 2024, but there are a number of problems that need to be solved, in particular, the issue of expressing one’s will in the temporarily occupied territories.

Back in August, US Senator Lindsey Graham said that elections should be held in Ukraine in 2024, despite the imposed martial law. This is what some other Western politicians also said.

President Zelensky said that he is ready to hold elections if the allies provide Ukraine with appropriate assistance. In particular, it is about 5 billion and about Western observers, including those in the trenches.

Reportedly, Zelensky was asked whether he would run for a second term if the elections were held in 2024. However, there was no direct answer. The head of state only emphasized that he would not leave his country during the war.

Sources: RBK-Ukraine, UNIAN

The concept of increasing resilience: negative assessment of experts and society

Last week, Ukrainian experts had numerous hot topics to discuss. One of the most heated ones is the discussion on the Concept of strengthening the resilience of democracy in Ukraine, which the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal handed over to the ambassadors of the G7 countries.

The concept of strengthening the resilience of democracy is a framework document prepared by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which will become part of Ukrainian doctrine. Based on the Concept, a road map of reforms will be developed, with the proposals of our partners and our own developments taken into account, in particular the Anti- Corruption Program. This is exactly the definition the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Denys Shmyhal, gave to this document.

As an appendix to the Concept, the Plan of Reforms until 2027 was devised. Now the Government is starting work on the creation of a unified document — a road map of reforms — based on the Concept of strengthening resilience, taking into account the proposals of partners.

People’s deputies, who negatively evaluated the document of the Cabinet of Ministers, were the first to join the discussion on the Concept.

Bohdan Yaremenko, People’s Deputy of Servant of the People: “It is such a shame that this regrettable … letter was officially handed to the ambassadors of the Big Seven. It will be difficult to convince me to vote for the draft budget for next year, if it does not reduce the number of ministries and civil servants by at least 30 percent.”

Yaroslav Zhelezniak, People’s Deputy of Holos: “If it is true that it was the document our [delegation] took with them on a visit to the USA…well, then in general, it is clear why….

…it went that way. And why they had such sad faces in the photo too.”

Rostyslav Pavlenko, People’s Deputy of European Solidarity: “The concept contains a number of outright harmful and dangerous provisions. Despite clear and unequivocal remarks, they continue to dream of taking control over the “fight against oligarchs” away from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and transferring this function under the umbrella of the Security Service of Ukraine and the Bureau of Economic Security, which they control.”

Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, People’s Deputy of Holos compared the US Strategy for Ukraine and the Concept of the Cabinet and noted: “External management has never been more attractive.”

Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin, who liked the document in general, said that the Concept contains steps that “will increase transparency and strengthen citizen control over the activities of state institutions, in particular law enforcement agencies.”

Viktor Shlinchak, chairman of the board of the Institute of World Politics, head of the Glavkom information agency, first analyzed the Cabinet of Ministers’ presentations in Lugano and London, calling them inadequate, cumbersome and incompetent, and then he spoke very harshly about the Concept: “Prime Minister Shmyhal has already handed over five pages of text to the G7 ambassadors, which had been called “The concept of strengthening the resilience of democracy”. The document is ridiculous, like all the previous ones, which were about “building castles in the air”. I’m not going to analyze the document. In social networks people have assumed that part of the text was generated by artificial intelligence. For it was necessary to do at least something, quickly, in contrast to the American plan of institutional and anti-corruption reforms that was leaked in the mass media. After all these manipulations, the next and logical document from Shmyhal should be a one-page text. His letter of resignation”.

Taras Shamayda, Ukrainian public figure, journalist, lawyer: “This is some load of nonsense… I have never been a fan of the current government, but still I couldn’t have even imagined the full depth of the degradation of power institutions. And then, finally, I read the notorious Concept of strengthening the resilience of democracy in Ukraine.

“Not only does the top leadership of Ukraine not have a serious plan for the changes the country needs, but it is also unable to formulate it. Everything is way worse. These people don’t even realize what nonsense they are officially conveying to the Western partners and what the people who will read this “document” might think about our state and its highest authority.

“These are two parallel realities. On the one hand – Ukrainian society and expert circles (including adequate people at various levels of government), on the other – people who make decisions at the highest level. Decisions which the future of our country largely depends on. If this goes on, that future, unfortunately, could be very sad.”

Tamara Duda (Tamara Gorikha Zernia), a Ukrainian writer and volunteer: “I wonder what the reaction of irritated adults will be to this spit in the eye.”

Here are some excerpts for those who don’t want to download the whole file: “improvement of Ukraine’s electoral legislation in accordance with political and security conditions;

– completion of the decentralization reform;

– further implementation of the course for joining the EU and NATO (implementation of directives, standards and rules);

And so on. At the end of each point, you are safe to add “blah- blah-blah”, because that’s exactly how it was written.

But in the meantime, they did not forget to mention the reduction in the number of deputies at all levels, the introduction of the English language into the practice of state institutions, and the creation under Zelensky of a “consultative and advisory body for development and implementation of effective mechanisms for uncompromising counteraction to oligarchic-corruption threats. I would like to watch the process of selecting members for this body.”

Social networks also exploded with angry comments.

Obviously, this was intended as our response to Chamberlain, that is, to the States with their ultimatums. It is also obvious that the answer was scribbled on the knee – and these are insignificant details, actually, whose knee it was exactly, Yermak’s or not. Corporate style can’t be confused with anything.

Submitting such a document is beyond constitutional authority. One can easily be charged with a criminal offense for this. This is obviously a blatant reason to open a case.

Here you have vocabulary of a high school level, a jumble of generalized phrases, and a refreshing course for deepening, concluding and modernizing everything that is good versus everything that is bad, without any specifics.

Click here to read previous editions of Pulse of the Week

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