Editor’s Note: This feature separates Ukraine’s friends from its enemies. The Order of Yaroslav the Wise has been given since 1995 for distinguished service to the nation. It is named after the Kyivan Rus leader from 1019-1054, when the medieval empire reached its zenith. The Order of Lenin was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union, whose demise Russian President Vladimir Putin mourns. It is named after Vladimir Lenin, whose corpse still rots on the Kremlin’s Red Square, more than 100 years after the October Revolution he led.
Ukraine’s Friend of the Week: Jason Pellmar, regional manager at World Bank’s International Finance Corporation
A frequent face at many of Ukraine’s major investment conferences and other business events, Jason Pellmar always seems optimistic and positive about the future, even if the country is embroiled in its latest crisis. He deserves to be recognized as a friend to Ukraine and is obviously committed to its prosperity and success.
Pellmar is leading a team that is investing in Ukraine while many are still hesitant to do so. He sees its potential, and is working with partners and the Ukrainian government to build a prosperous and inclusive future.
A number of the International Finance Corporation’s recent results, especially in the agriculture sector, stand above its other achievements.
Responsible for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova at the IFC, Pellmar has coordinated the funding of a number of important projects here that are lifting thousands of farmers out of poverty and ensuring food security for Ukraine and the dozens of nations that now depend on its food exports.
The IFC said this week that one of its main projects has helped small-scale farmers in Ukraine to the tune of a staggering $1 billion — vital working capital that allows the juggernaut of Ukrainian agriculture to keep steaming ahead.
The corporation says it has helped over 2,000 small farmers in Ukraine gain access to capital through so-called “crop receipts,” an ongoing initiative that the bank says funds farmers and allows them to maintain productivity and profitability.
Pellmar said in a statement: “Introducing crop receipts in Ukraine is an initiative that IFC commenced from the bottom up, including legislative training of financial institutions, and raising awareness among farmers. Ukrainian farmers now widely use this simple, convenient, and reliable instrument to get much-needed finance. This innovation is an important part of IFC’s efforts to help Ukraine realize its agribusiness potential.”
We are grateful to Pellmar for his stalwart support for Ukraine, and for the way he and the IFC are intelligently deploying capital where it can be used best — from the bottom up, not wasting it on the oligarchs at the top.
We believe that Pellmar is a principled, smart investor who sees the country’s importance as a bread basket for the world. He is a strong supporter of and ally to Ukraine, and we are pleased to award him our Order of Yaroslav the Wise.
And while on the subject on the IFC, we also want to recognize the World Bank, which this week allocated an extra $135 million to support Ukraine’s health system reform and boost its COVID-19 response.
The World Bank stated: “This additional financing will help Ukraine upgrade up to 40 hospital emergency departments… enabling hospitals to perform complicated medical procedures using hi-tech equipment and appropriate treatment protocols.”
The bank has previously provided $215 million to help support Ukrainian health care reform, granting assistance for the renovation of hospitals and health centers.
The country needs to see that capital put to good work. It must reach front-line health care workers and health facilities, not get tangled up in bureaucracy and not be filtered down through corrupt schemes.
The COVID-19 pandemic has mercifully claimed few lives in Ukraine when compared to other European nations, but 20% of all deaths were among health workers. They deserved better than this and Ukraine needs to be better prepared.
We thank the World Bank and its acting country director Alex Kremer for the $135 million emergency response to bolster Ukraine’s health sector and we also recognize that the institution is a friend to the country (and others) at this very difficult time.
Ukraine’s Foe of the Week: Denis Pushilin, leader of Russia-backed Donbas militants
As Ukraine struggles to contain the COVID-19 pandemic that has infected more than 10,400 of its people, it is also struggling to contain the deadly disease of Russian hybrid aggression.
The Kremlin’s war against the country in its eastern Donbas region continues.
Thousands are now living in heightened misery amid the new fear of COVID-19. Hospitals and schools are destroyed, neglected or abandoned and NGOs warn of a humanitarian catastrophe if there is a major outbreak in the war-torn region.
In spite of the struggle against coronavirus, there are still regular breaches of the fragile cease-fire agreement at the contact line between Ukraine-controlled areas of the Donbas and those held by Russian forces and their proxies. Kremlin-backed militants continue to use banned heavy weaponry.
And the propaganda war continues too, loudly voiced by Kremlin sycophant and head of the unrecognized Donetsk republic Denis Pushilin.
Instead of trying to actually govern and improve the region that he illegitimately controls, he is using talking points from the Putin playbook to control, mislead and manipulate the people.
On April 24, he absurdly proposed that the Ukrainian city of Donetsk should be renamed Stalino after the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, who starved and enslaved millions of Ukrainians only decades ago. That by itself is enough to reaffirm his status as a foe to Ukraine.
But Pushilin has also renewed his attacks on Ukrainians and their President Volodymyr Zelensky and told the residents of the occupied Donbas that the Ukrainian government will use its land reform laws to “steal” farmland in Donetsk and Luhansk.
As reported by local media, Pushilin said: “Zelensky… put his signature on an anti-Ukrainian law governing the land market, and he himself called this event historic. Encroaching on the national heritage of his native country, this person does not have the right to talk about its territorial integrity… They don’t need people, they need our territory.”
A long-awaited Ukrainian agricultural land market is to be launched in July 2021. The new law will allow farmers to buy and sell their land, something that has long been illegal.
It’s understandable that Putin’s poodle Pushilin doesn’t like this idea. It would free farmers to create a real market, attract investment and lift themselves out of poverty. Dictators like his pal Stalin and Putin prefer to free themselves while enslaving the people.
Pushilin is concocting a populist fiction for his followers. The smart ones will see through it. And when they are reunited with the Ukrainian motherland, they’ll be able to benefit from the land market, too.
