The leader in Ukraine’s presidential race Volodymyr Zelenskiy stormed to victory on March 31 without revealing much about his political positions.
He started his campaign without an election program, instead crowdsourcing ideas from his followers on social media. He held regular meetings with experts from various fields to learn about governance and matters of public concern.
Zelenskiy’s opponents have thus claimed the actor has no political vision. But with the runoff election on April 21 approaching, Zelenskiy has started to reveal where he stands on key issues for the country, and how he is going to address them, albeit in rather vague terms.
Last week, his team put forward the demands for President Petro Poroshenko before the end of his term.
“Ukraine has two major problems: war in the Donbas and people’s fear to invest in the country,” said Zelenskiy, in an interview to Ukraina television channel on April 7.
Ending the war
Zelenskiy says the first step to ending the war in the Donbas is to establish a ceasefire.
“We can’t afford a long process, because every day starts with news of the number of killed and injured at war. We don’t have time to warm up,” he said, adding that he was ready to negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The stalled Minsk peace process has to be rebooted, he said: “It’s a war with Russia, so the talks should be with Russia. It must be in a diplomatic format, with the presence of Western partners. We will never sacrifice our people or territories.”
Ukraine also has to start an information war against Russia, Zelenskiy believes. In previous interviews, he said Ukraine needs to launch a Russian-language television channel that will broadcast in eastern Ukraine and the Russian-occupied territories of the Donbas.
“We need to reach out to everyone in the east and the occupied territories: “Guys, you’ve been brainwashed, you’re part of Ukraine, we’re waiting for you, you’re Ukrainians”,” he said. “We have to start paying pensions to them.”
Zelenskiy likely means simplifying the procedure by which Ukrainians living on the Russian-occupied territories obtain their pensions. Currently, they must register as internally displaced persons and make arduous trips to the border-crossing checkpoints to collect their money on the Ukrainian-controlled side. This has been especially hard for elderly people.
Zelenskiy also promises that Ukraine will continue its integration with the European Union and North-Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), but adds that the benefits of accession to NATO are yet to be explained to Ukrainians living in the eastern parts of the country.
“As a Ukrainian citizen I’m for NATO, but we have to explain to people that it is for security. We have to reach out to everyone in the east. NATO (membership) has to be (decided) through a referendum,” he said.
Fighting corruption
Ukraine’s investment climate depends on two things, according to Zelenskiy: the protection of business and the fight against corruption.
Read more: Zelenskiy talks about business, oligarchs with Ukrainian business leaders
Zelenskiy has two anti-corruption advisers: the journalist-turned-lawmaker Serhiy Leshchenko and lawyer and former member of the National Agency for Corruption Prevention Ruslan Ryaboshapka.
On April 6, his team released a detailed anti-corruption program. In its core is political will.
“It is wrong to hope that a corrupt state system would have the will to deprive itself of its feeding base. Corruption for old politicians is like water for fish. The old political elite being against corruption is the same as bees being against honey,” the statement reads.
Here are the key steps in Zelenskiy’s anti-corruption agenda.
- Ensure real independence of the entire chain of anti-corruption agencies: in particular, anti-corruption agencies have to be established via an independent international selection board;
- Remove immunity from prosecution for politicians;
- Establish the High Economic Court;
- Strip law enforcement agencies, such as the Security Service of Ukraine, Prosecutor General’s Office, and Ministry of Interior Affairs, of powers to investigate economic crimes. Transfer these powers to a new agency for economic investigations;
- Decriminalize economic activity as much as possible and introduce monetary and administrative penalties for economic crimes, and hold to account public officials who harass businesses;
- Toughen the punishment for public officials involved in corruption by way of voluntary resignation, confiscation of property, and a lifelong ban on taking any public office. Ban the courts from releasing corrupt officials on bail;
- E-government: as many government services to business as possible should be moved online;
- Engage citizens in exposing corruption through a system of rewards;
- Ask Western law enforcement agencies to open investigations into Ukrainian officials determined by Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies to be involved in corruption.
