Pavlo Polamarchuk — reformer of the week
Pavlo Polamarchuk, an Odesa-based activist, has been involved in healthcare reforms in Odesa and nationwide.
Currently Polamarchuk, a top member of the Democratic Alliance party’s Odesa branch, is a volunteer, helping Health Minister Ulana Suprun carry out her ambitious reform plans.
The reform aims to eliminate loopholes for graft in the healthcare system, make budget money “follow the patient” and introduce international best practices for treatment and diagnostics.
“If the monster (of the current healthcare system) continues to exist, we don’t run a single chance other than the expansion of cemeteries,” Polamarchuk, who had also been involved in healthcare reforms in Odesa under ex-Odesa Oblast Governor Mikheil Saakashvili, said on May 18.
However, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, on May 18 failed to pass Suprun’s healthcare reform legislation, with President Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc deciding to postpone the issue.
Glib Zagory, a lawmaker from the Poroshenko Bloc, as well as ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s son Oleksander and his Health Minister Raisa Bogatyryova, have been accused of taking part in graft schemes in healthcare, which they deny.
Borys Filatov – Anti-reformer of the week
Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov on May 27 said he had appointed Andriy Tkachenko, an ex-commander of Dnipro’s Berkut riot police, as head of the city’s municipal police.
Filatov, who had previously portrayed himself as a patriot and a supporter of the EuroMaidan Revolution, justified the decision as “Realpolitik” and said he needed “professionals.”
Tkachenko took part in crackdowns on protesters during the 2013–2014 EuroMaidan Revolution in Kyiv and was involved in beating protesters on Nov. 30, 2013.
In response to criticism of the appointment, Filatov lashed out at his opponents on Facebook. He called activists and journalists opposed to the decision “sh*t”, “f***ng sheep,” “bastards”, “nobodies” and “scum,” telling them to “f**ck off.”
Tkachenko’s appointment follows a brutal crackdown by regional riot police, the successor of Berkut, and pro-government thugs, or “titushki”, on nationalist activists and Ukrainian veterans of Russia’s war against Ukraine at a protest on May 9 in Dnipro. The police and titushki beat the activists with batons and kicked them with their legs.
Previously Filatov had also appointed Svitlana Yepifantseva, an ex-ally of former President Viktor Yanukovych, as one of his deputies. Meanwhile, Valery Chornobuk, a former Ukrainian judge who recognized Russia’s annexation of Crimea and urged other judges to do the same, is currently an informal advisor to Filatov, according to the Democratic Alliance and the Civic Force parties.
