Days before local elections, President Volodymyr Zelensky sat down with journalists from four Ukrainian television channels to talk about the COVID-19 pandemic and the questions of his nationwide poll that will be conducted on the same day as the vote, Oct. 25.
The last time Zelensky gave an interview to a Ukrainian media outlet was in June, when Ukrainska Pravda followed him on his visit to Khmelnytsky Oblast. In the months since his May 20 press conference to mark his first year in office, the president gave one-on-one interviews to a number of foreign media outlets.
But it was not the interview itself, aired on Oct. 22, that stood out. It was the set-up.
Sitting in the gold-plated meeting room at the President’s Office, Zelensky took softball questions from the journalists of Ukraina (owned by oligarch Rinat Akhmetov), 1+1 (owned by oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky), ICTV (owned by oligarch Victor Pinchuk) and Inter (owned by Dmytro Firtash, Valery Khoroshkovsky, and Serhiy Lyovochkin).
Iuliia Mendel, spokeswoman for Zelensky’s office, said on Facebook that those channels were chosen based on their national significance and ratings.
Interviews at the presidential administration with several reporters from oligarch-owned television channels are the way Ukrainian presidents have traditionally communicated with the media. Such “open” talks usually consist of safe and unchallenging questions.
Former President Petro Poroshenko particularly favored the format, often giving interviews to a group of journalists from Ukraina, Inter, ICTV and his own television channels, Pryamyi and Channel 5.
His predecessor, Viktor Yanukovych, also sat down with journalists from the same “pool” of the Inter, 1+1, ICTV, Channel 5, and Ukraina television channels.
“We missed such formats so much (not really),” Maria Zhartovska, reporter for the Babel news website, commented on Mendel’s Facebook post announcing the interview.
“Like in the good old days. Four TV channels,” commented Khrystyna Kotsira, writer and former editor at ICTV.
In 2019, fomer comedian Zelensky won the presidency, riding to victory on anti-establishment sentiment and a promise to do things differently than his predecessors.
Exactly a year ago, on Oct. 14, 2019, Ukraine’s young president made international headlines when he sat down with 300 Ukrainian and foreign journalists for a 14-hour “marathon” press conference over pizza at a food court in Kyiv.
What did the president say?
For much of the interview, Zelensky repeated his broad theses and general vision. Luckily for him, the journalists’ questions were predictable and not too tough.
Read more: Zelensky touts achievements, makes promises in address to parliament
The Ukrainian government does not plan to re-impose a strict lockdown despite the fact the daily number of new COVID-19 cases has surpassed 7,000, the number of active cases is over 181,000 and the pandemic has killed more than 6,000 Ukrainians.
Shutting down the economy is dangerous and unfeasible, Zelensky said.
However, if there will be 15,000 new COVID-19 cases per day, a new lockdown is possible. This is a significant increase in the threshold of 9,500 daily cases, which the president announced earlier this week at the meeting with religious leaders.
He said the pressure on the health care system is increasing, but the problem is not in the limited number of hospital beds or equipment for COVID-19 patients, but the shortage of medical personnel to treat them.
“We can’t repurpose the entire medical system for COVID-19 needs,” he said.
At the same time, Zelensky claimed that the quality of treatment of COVID-19 patients in Ukraine is higher than in European countries because Ukraine has a lower mortality rate.
Zelensky blamed the wave of infections in Odesa, Kharkiv and Dnipro on their mayors, whom he called “little tsars” for organizing crowded public celebrations during the pandemic. He said criminal cases have been opened against them.
Zelensky also said he supports stricter fines for ignoring public health rules. However, it is up to lawmakers to change legislation.
The president again said that he is ready to fire Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova if she does not “deliver results” by the end of the year.
As for his poll on Oct. 25, the day of local elections, Zelensky said it is important for him to hear people’s thoughts, although the results of the poll will not have legal force.
Read more: Zelensky unveils 5 questions of his Oct. 25 poll
Asked about the most oblique question of the poll — whether Ukraine should claim the security guarantees it was promised under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum for restoring its territory — Zelensky replied just as vaguely.
“The comprehensive work is ongoing,” he said. “I can’t reveal my strategy.”
He hinted that the construction of two navy bases on the Black Sea, which he had announced earlier, is part of the plan.
“If (international memorandums and agreements) are broken, Ukraine should do as it deems necessary,” Zelensky said.
