Weekly all-Ukrainian forums «Ukraine 30»

At the beginning of this year, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a series of weekly “Ukraine 30” forums.

Four forums from this series have already passed. The first forum was dedicated to the coronavirus. In the course of it, the president promised to start mass vaccination in February, and the Minister of Health named the exact dates - from February 15. The country's leadership has fulfilled these promises. However, with a small proviso. Pfizer's US vaccine supply was disrupted. On February 23, the first batch of AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in the country, and on February 24, the first citizens received vaccinations.

The second forum was devoted to utility bills of the population. And here the authorities were lying, to put it mildly. The whole tariff reduction scheme is a commonplace scam. Gas prices have decreased in comparison with the January tariff, but they remained higher than the December ones. And this “decrease” is temporary - only until April 01. On the “fools day”, the population seems to be waiting for a tariff gift.

The third forum was devoted to infrastructure issues. From television screens, the president promised to reconstruct 6,500 kilometers of highways and 16 airports during the current year. Such bold statements were called overly optimistic even by the former Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan. When he was an official, he gave out similar promises. Now he openly criticized the president. He explained in numbers the unrealizability of the president's promises. According to the ex-minister, at least 150 billion hryvnias are needed to carry out the promised volume of work. Most of this amount will be spent on debt repayment and servicing, traffic safety, local roads, and so on. As a result, no more than 31 billion will remain on the roads of national importance. And this is enough for only 1.3 thousand kilometers, which is five times less than promised.

The impracticability of plans for the construction and reconstruction of 16 airports is understandable even to a common man in the street. Everyone remembers how the Donetsk Prokofiev Airport was reconstructed. And according to the president, an airport should be built on the border of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

The construction of a railway line from Kiev to the western borders of Ukraine with a European-style track also raises many questions. Not only does Ukrzaliznitsa lack traction, but the existing one has very strong wear and tear. So you still have to solve the issue of joining ruts of different widths.

The idea of introducing a new commuter train system is great. But again, it requires significant funding, which is not there.

The president also promised to build two ski resorts with all the infrastructure. One of them was supposed to be commissioned back in 2012. But the work never started.

From March 1 to March 3, the next forum “Ukraine 30. Development of Justice” is being held in Kiev. Within the framework of it, representatives of the Ukrainian authorities with experts will discuss the role and tasks of the Constitutional and Supreme Courts, as well as the draft of the new Criminal Code of Ukraine. The issue of updating the Civil Code will also be considered.

President Zelensky said that effective judicial reform will be carried out in Ukraine, guaranteeing the right of every citizen to a fair, independent and fair trial.

There are no concrete results of this event yet. But it can be assumed that the idea of reforms indicated by the IMF will be promoted.

In the course of each of the forums, the population is given heart-pleasing promises. Some are fulfilled, not the most significant ones. Basically, the promises are unlikely to come true. And this will not surprise many. None of the presidential election promises have yet been fulfilled.

The rating of the party in power and of Volodymyr Zelensky himself is rapidly falling. The population is gradually becoming disillusioned with the government against the backdrop of an impending economic catastrophe and the collapse of the government system.

Therefore, weekly broadcasts on state TV channels of TV shows with the president and the promise of at least virtual changes may become at least some weak attempt to fight for the electorate. And there will be reasons for not keeping promises by the end of the year.