Zelenskyy began the press conference telling journalists how the country plans to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence. Festivities will be held for three days which will remain in the memory of Ukrainians for ever, the President said. For instance, on August 22, the award-presenting ceremonies will be held to honor renowned Ukrainians who made Ukraine famous across the world with their achievements. The next day, large yellow-and-blue national flags will be raised across the country. And on August 24 that marks Independence Day, a military parade will march down Khreshchatyk Street in Kyiv downtown. Later in the day, a gala concert of Ukrainian singers and dancers will be held in the city’s largest sports arena.
Apart from festival events, the first summit called “The Crimean Platform” will be held during those days. Attended by guests from more than 30 countries, this format will become the serious platform for discussing ways of returning the illegally-annexed Crimea to Ukraine.
After finishing the introductory part of the press conference, President Zelenskyy told journalists about top priorities of his activities.
“Number one ‒ we are building a country without oligarchs. I believe you are already aware of our first steps for which I’ve got ready for quite a long time. And now you can see the first results: the country for 40 million people and not for a hundred Ukrainian tycoons from Forbes’ list of the wealthiest men in the world”, said Zelenskyy. He added that the government is working to build a country capable of defending its sovereignty and whose economy does not depend on the other countries’ sanctions policy against Russia.
“We are creating a country where all will be equal before the law. It is a sphere which we actually have to build from scratch: a new judicial system, an anti-corruption Constitutional Court, quite a few important legislations most of which have already been agreed”, the President went on to say.
Besides, Zelenskyy emphasized that the creation of a state where there is no poverty and where all land belongs to the people is one of his main priorities.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke at length about how he wants to end the war. For instance, he is intended to submit the issue of the settlement of the conflict in Donbas to an all-Ukraine referendum. At the same time, the President promised that he as the guardian of the Constitution would see to it that everything would be organized without “betrayal”.
The President stressed, “We are building a country without war. True, it is a complex and long process. We are working to restore peace brick by brick. And we are aware that peace must be strong and lasting. And in this regard much depends on the military might of our army. It must be strong and efficient on land and water, in the air and cyberspace”.
Though Ukraine has to continue working within the Normandy Format, it nevertheless expects to see more support from European partners, particularly French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who have been feeling relaxed lately, according to the Ukrainian President.
Zelensky emphasized that Ukraine does its best to prevent the Donbas conflict from being frozen completely despite the fact that its settlement by 99% depends on Russia. “We cling to this one percent so the solution to the conflict has not been stalled”, he said but did not exclude a possibility of the conflict to be frozen for an indefinite time. He went on to say, “There is no any ‘betrayal’ in this. Politically, it is a normal thing… Many countries live like that… I know exactly what I do, where I go and why”.
To the question what he thinks about Vladimir Putin, the Ukrainian President gave an evasive reply, “I have no time to think about President Putin. I only think about our meetings in one format or the other which can lead to the end of the war. That’s why I try to be cautious about giving characteristics that could provoke further escalation… At first, we have to end the war and then I’ll say what and who I think about”.
Speaking about the agenda of a possible meeting of the presidents of the United States and Russia, Zelenskyy stressed that Joe Biden would discuss only those Ukrainian issues that would be agreed with the official Kyiv. “Is there risk that they could raise certain questions despite our preliminary agreements? I think such risk does exist”, he answered. In his understanding, the main risk is that in the long run the United States would not be able to resist the pressure of Russians and could lift sanctions against the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline.
“I believe it will be a defeat of the United States, a defeat of Joe Biden personally. I speak quite openly about this because I know that it will be a serious geopolitical victory of the Russian Federation and a new redistribution of forces and spheres of influence”, said President Zelenskyy.
Answering questions dealing with domestic problems, Zelensky flatly rejected a possibility of former prime-ministers Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Volodymyr Groisman and Yulia Tymoshenko returning to power. Speaking about his attitude to ex-President Petro Poroshenko, he said, “I have no sentiments whatsoever… Actually, I am his verdict”.
When asked about his plans to run for a second presidential term, Zelenskyy answered that it would too “depend on the wish of society”. During his election campaign two years ago, Zelenskyy claimed that he would go only for one term.
So far, the election program of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been fulfilled only by 25%. Such is the conclusion of experts of the Committee of Electors of Ukraine who have studied how successfully his election promises have been implemented during his two-year stay in power. For instance, Committee Head Oleksiy Koshel had this to say, “Mainly, the minor promises have been realized. But they have had no positive influence on the living standards of people. Meanwhile, such essential provisions of his program as promises to end the war, improve the quality of life, fight corruption and other important reforms have remained unfulfilled”.
According to the results of the opinion poll carried out by the sociological group “Rating”, 42% of Ukrainians evaluated the second year of Zelenskyy’s presidency as unsatisfactory or even ghastly, a quarter of the respondents gave an excellent or good assessment, and 34% of the respondents believe that his work is satisfactory.
On the eve of the second anniversary of the last presidential elections, the Center of SOCIS canvassed Ukrainians to get their opinion about the activities of Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the office of the President: 57.1% of the respondents think that his work is unprofessional and dilettantish.
Nevertheless, the Incumbent President would easily win over any rival during the second round of presidential elections if such would take place today, claims the sociological group “Rating” that published the results of its poll on May 20. Thus, they argue that if presidential elections were held one of these days, 30.2% of Ukrainians would give their votes for Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the first round while 12.8% of the respondents would support Petro Poroshenko, the fifth president of Ukraine.
The newspaper Voice of Ukraine
