What comes as the number 2 on the attention list is, of course, the economy and the familiar corruption issues. The economy will not grow without more investment — which will not happen until some major corruption figures in the government and in the judiciary are sent to jail (literally), and the middle echelon ranks in both of them are substantially cleansed and reduced in size.
With cooperating parliament, President Petro Poroshenko has probably more power to get done what needs to be done than he is willing to admit. His shortcoming may be too much attachment to his own existing relationships within the circles where he thinks he has personally trustworthy pals. It may not be easy to abandon such long-ingrained political model and try something new.
The corruption issue has been widely brought to public attention, including also numerous editorials in publications such as the Kyiv Post.
The president has been reacting rather than leading in the corruption fight. He made changes here and there recently, such in the Zakarpattia Oblast, but only when the gas exploded.
Yes, the government has been prompted by the Right Sector to take some action in the Mukachevo area, but action came only after throwing accusations at “the militants” who, in effect, compelled the president to act.
The government has not accorded the due credit to the fighting spirit and organizational capacity shown by ordinary Ukrainians who brought it to power at Maidan. It is now up to President Petro Poroshenko to show that he stands with the people rather than plays a hide- and- seek with a mix of political cronies and high-wire masked economic “moshennyky” (swindlers).
If he does not take this seriously, the result may become similar to former President Viktor Yushchenko’s career- ending epitaph after he had promised much and delivered little.
Despite plummeting approval ratings, Poroshenko still is probably the best bet to lead the country out of its predicament — that can be summed up as financial squeeze, the ravage of poverty, shortage of high-grade armaments for its military, and corruption epidemic. But he needs to shake hard the monkey tree of prosecutors, judges and lawyers, to get real and visible outcomes. The country needs a morale boost. To take out on “the militants” who busted corrupt operators is a non-starter.
Is there a number 3 on a list of priorities? There has been, and still is to some extent — the mud hole concerning the status of parts of Donbas now in the hands of Russia-backed separatists. Only “to some extent” because there is not much Kyiv can do to regain control in that area. The number 3 priority, If any, should be to get rid of it permanently, as a drag on Ukraine’s identity and a pro-Russia infested den.
Some say “Poroshenko must not cave on Donbas.” Cave-in does not appear to be in the cards. There is no indication that the president or the Rada will agree to a kind of autonomy for Donbas as was dictated by Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Minsk. Nor will Russia fulfill its part — honest elections in Donbas and border control by Ukraine.
Constitutional changes proposed by the parliament this July envision a special law for Donbas to be worked out later this year. Indications are there will be no agreement with Russia on that score. War will continue or become a ‘frozen conflict” indefinitely.
As I see it since last year, a frozen conflict in Donbas is probably the best result Ukraine can get. It is by far better than the Holodomor — the genocidal terror famine inflicted by Moscow in Ukraine in the 1930s, in which millions had died, conveniently not noticed in Western capitals.
Talk about “not forsaking Ukrainians” living in separatist-controlled parts of Donbas, or citing a 70/30 percent preference by Donbas population to be part of Ukraine is meaningless. The actual preference of most people in Donbas is to live in a Ukraine controlled by the Donbas pro-Russian mafia (as was under the Yanukovych regime) or to become outright part of Russia.
Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers were killed or wounded in Donbas because war was instigated and started by Russia. The army and volunteer battalions had to stop the enemy advance into the country’s heartland. They have done it the best they could. But not a single Ukrainian military death can be justified by a wish “to liberate” the Ukrainians in Donbas — most of whom very clearly have shown and continue to show hate and contempt for Kyiv and Ukraine.
The Ukrainian army and volunteer battalions are fighting in the east to save Ukraine as an independent state, rather than indulge in platitudes. They have a chance to be successful, despite the duplicity and the absence of substantive economic and weapons support from the European Union and the present US government.
What a contrast to the trillions of dollars mostly wasted by the US in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last twelve years, trying to prop up shaky regimes — with money, weapons and American ground and air power.
In Ukraine, the key factor was and is the remaking of the Ukrainian people themselves in recent years. What was a nationalist minority has become a nationalist majority in a broad, nation-building sense, including both the Russian and Ukrainian speakers, regardless of ethnicity.
The barking at mythical “extreme right-wing (Stepan) Bandera nationalists” from Russia’s manipulated media resonates only among Moscow’s well-known allies and stooges. Amazingly, Bandera’s name is becoming widely accepted in Ukraine as symbolic of resistance to Russian aggression. Many have discovered it means “the banner” in Spanish language.
There is not much Ukraine can do about the European Union’s agonizing over the Grexit, or about the American media having a great time over Iran bashing and the Isis crisis, rather than paying more attention to threat from Russia.
On the one hand, high-ranking US military officials are warning the Congress that the number one threat to America is Russia. On the other hand, the US business elite (not exactly a citadel of patriotism) and the European Union are so petrified by Russia that they would rather not hear any warnings. But they will not save themselves by pushing Ukraine surreptitiously into Russia’s orbit. Shooting themselves in the foot is nothing new.
