When the presidential administration decided to negotiate with Russian-backed militants who control parts of Ukraine’s east, it proved extremely controversial.
It also sparked tensions within Servant of the People, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s political party, which holds the majority of seats in parliament.
Now, some loyal lawmakers are seeking to form a group in support of the president.
The Kyiv Post obtained a document, sent around to the Servant of the People lawmakers, that announces the creation of a group within the party, called Democratic Platform.
According to the manifesto, the group’s priorities are to support Zelensky’s reforms, protect Ukraine’s sovereignty without compromising on national interests and to combat corruption and the influence of oligarchs. It’s not year clear how many lawmakers will join the group.
The idea appears to be to have the group serve as the backbone of the party, which was hastily formed and is being weakened by outside influences and internal disagreements.
The manifesto was authored by Mykyta Poturaev, a Servant of the People lawmaker responsible for the party’s communications strategy, according to the Microsoft Word document’s properties.
Poturaev confirmed to the Kyiv Post that he sought to create a group of lawmakers who will support Zelensky’s reforms. He said that he ran the idea by the president and got his approval.
“There are shifting characters (in the party),” Poturaev said.
If created, the group might serve two purposes.
The first is to counterbalance the influence of powerbrokers like oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who controls a handful of lawmakers in the party, including his business partners and former employees. They tend to vote against the party line and publicly disagree with Zelensky’s administration and the government.
The second is to unite and keep close those lawmakers who support Zelensky but oppose some of his administration’s decisions.
The discussion of creating the group started right after 45 lawmakers from Servant of the People condemned the administration and its chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, for deciding to create a so-called Advisory Council that would include representatives of both Ukraine and the Russian-led militants occupying parts of the eastern Donbas region. Many saw the decision as legalizing the militants as an independent entity.
It wasn’t the only rift in the party. Separately, 19 lawmakers signed a demand to fire Serhiy Sivokho, a controversial advisor to Oleksiy Danilov, head of the National Security and Defence Council. Sivokho, a former comedian who worked with Zelensky on comedy shows before 2019, was placed in charge of developing a program of reconciliation between the occupied territories of Donbas and the rest of Ukraine.
He was criticized for statements that many see as echoing Russian propaganda, such as referring to the war as “internal conflict.”
The initial rift
A major rift in the Servant of the People party occurred on March 13, after Yermak stole the spotlight from a coronavirus-themed press conference by announcing direct talks with Russian-led militants.
According to Yermak, Ukraine agreed to create an Advisory Council which will include an equal number of representatives from Ukraine and the Russian-occupied territories. The council will discuss the implementation of the 2015 Minsk Agreement, including decentralization and local elections in the occupied zone. The council’s rule book will be finalized in the upcoming weeks. Its decisions are advisory only, with no legal status.
“We must agree on our position with representatives of the non-controlled territories,” Yermak told journalists, sparking outrage among those in attendance.
Read More: In controversial change, Ukraine to enter direct negotiations with Russian-led militants
On the same day, 45 members of the Servant of the People party made a joint statement saying that they disagree with the decision, which drastically diverges from the country’s established policy of holding negotiations only with the aggressor state, Russia, and not legitimizing its proxies by negotiating with them.
The rebel lawmakers were later called into the president’s office to explain their position, according to Yevhenia Kravchuk, the party’s deputy head.
It’s not clear how many of those disagreeing with the administration’s policy will join the new Democratic Platform group.
Counterbalancing Kolomoisky
The main argument for the group’s creation is to counterbalance “shifting characters,” according to Poturaev.
“(Democratic Platform) will take harsh action against attempts to fracture the (Servant of the People) faction, discredit progressive Ukrainian politicians and obstruct the president’s and parliament’s reforms,” the group’s proposed manifesto reads.
The Servant of the People party, which won 254 seats in the parliament in July, includes several people with a connection to oligarch Kolomoisky. The oligarch used to have business ties with Zelensky and provided media support to his presidential campaign.
However, since the election, the oligarch has often been a source of trouble for the president.
His aggressive campaign to get revenge for his former business, PrivatBank, which was nationalized in 2016, undermined Ukraine’s relations with International Monetary Fund, its biggest and most crucial lender.
The state took control of the bank and bailed it out with taxpayer money after a $5.5-billion hole was discovered in its ledgers. Now the state-owned PrivatBank is suing its former owners in London, Tel Aviv, Geneva and Kyiv to get back the money that it alleges they stole.
The oligarch denies accusations.
Apart from the civil suit, there are criminal investigations into Kolomoisky’s alleged fraud that are being conducted by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. Lawmakers of the Servant of the People party who are associated with Kolomoisky, such as former employees of his 1+1 TV station, have spearheaded the campaign to fire Artem Sytnyk, the chief of the bureau, claiming he is ineffective and corrupt. Sytnyk attributed the campaign to Kolomoisky feeling threatened by the investigation.
The Democratic Platform’s manifesto reads that the group must protect the reputation of Ukraine as a trustworthy partner of foreign governments and international financial institutions – an apparent reference to the strained relationship with the International Monetary Fund.
