Ukraine’s political elite and Ukrainian society as a whole are desperately at risk when plunged perpetually into sorting out relations among themselves. The search for the guilty, the debate over who is the strongest Ukrainian patriot versus Moscow’s secret agent, or servant of the evil oligarchs, creates an atmosphere of a never-ending “witch hunt”.
It’s worth remembering that, in 1917, the revolution in Russia overthrew the monarchy, the empire began to disintegrate and Ukraine found a real chance to gain independence. That chance was missed, in no small measure because a war quickly broke out between different groups of Ukrainian revolutionaries for the right to be called the true fighters for Ukraine.
It was a struggle for power in which no side managed to come out on top and which, in the end, proved victorious for the Bolsheviks. A similar thing happened with the opponents of the Bolsheviks in Russia since the left, right, monarchists, republicans were somehow unable to unite against the main enemy.
History has repeated itself in Ukraine’s 30-years of independence. Less than a year after the 2004 Orange Revolution, the victors of the first Maidan and supporters of European and North Atlantic ideals, were locked in a vicious cycle of quarreling. As a result, the “orange” representatives lost their former popularity and, in 2010, Viktor Yanukovych rose to the top seat of power.
In 2014, after the new Maidan that toppled Yanukovych, only the annexation of Crimea and Putin’s hybrid war in eastern Ukraine appeared to consolidate the Ukrainian political class. Otherwise, aligned groups may have imploded yet again.
However, the coalition of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, the People’s Front and other pro-European political forces turned out to be very shaky and appeared to exist only on paper. Fast forward to 2021 and after two and a half years in the hands of President Zelensky and the Servant of the People party – showdowns and the search for new enemies started again.
Disappointment has once again accumulated within society. The President’s activities are considered lackluster, criticism is heard in the press and uncomfortable questions are being asked.
However, instead of calmly reacting to criticism and answering public questions, the authorities are seeking to attack the country’s independent journalists. For example, Oleksandr Ermakov and Olena Galushka, both employees of the Anti-Corruption Center, wrote a devastating article against my colleague Natasha Vlashchenko.
With Russian aggression against Ukraine currently in its eighth year, openly pro-Kremlin positions are becoming increasingly toxic in the Ukrainian information space. Those who wish to prevent Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration are focusing their attention on anti-Western narratives. This trend appears designed to undermine public faith in Ukraine’s reform agenda whilst fueling feelings of distrust and suspicion towards the wider democratic world.
In order to gain a better idea of how anti-Western messaging is being used in the Ukrainian media, the Anticorruption Action Center (AntAC) monitored the 2021 summer season of political show “Hard with Vlashchenko” on Rinat Akhmetov’s Ukrayina 24 TV channel. Hosted by journalist Natalia Vlashchenko, the show has faced numerous accusations of promoting anti-reform and anti-Western views.
During their analysis of the summer season, AntAC researchers found that messages of this nature were voiced at least once by either a guest or Vlashchenko in 30 out of 40 episodes. This painstaking computation of anti-Western narratives goes to show just how many hours need to be spent in front of the screen to count it all, let alone the task of combating corruption itself! It looks like a political denunciation.
Having personally known Natasha Vlashchenko for a long time. I have no reason to suspect her of anti-Western, anti-reform and anti-Ukrainian sentiments. It is enough to read her book “Theft. White Sun of Crimea”, in which she tells, based on evidence from her numerous interviews with people at the time, how Russia invaded Crimea in 2014.
Sadly, many people in Ukraine are still of the misinformed views that journalists working for this or that media outlet, or belonging to this or that owner, cannot be anything but obedient slaves to the owners in what they say or write.
In fact, the best Ukrainian journalists are independent journalists who do not sing or dance to anyone’s tune. As for the Ukraine 24 channel, I can only repeat what my colleagues have said on this channel more than once in the past: its owner does not interfere in editorial policy. As for the supposedly secret pro-Russian tilt, I dare say that no other Ukrainian channel provides such a substantial voice to Russian critics of the Putin regime, representatives of the opposition and political emigrants. In early December, the channel’s correspondents covered in detail the work of the Forum of Free Russia, which met in Vilnius. And that’s it.
From the Editors: This Op-Ed piece expresses the personal view of the author and does not necessarily represent the position of the Kyiv Post.
