5 YEARS OF ZELENSKYY: WHAT DID PRESIDENT PROMISE AND HOW DID HE PERFORM?
20 May is the last day of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s term in office under the election law. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been in power for exactly 5 years, and during these 5 years, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has had unprecedented powers in the history of Ukraine.
For the first time in the history of Ukraine, one person, one president, has had an absolute monopoly in power for all these 5 years. Zelenskyy has been single-handedly controlling and has been controlling the entire presidential vertical, the entire parliamentary vertical, the entire governmental vertical for 5 years and, in fact, influenced the appointments and decisions of literally all state bodies, all heads, all departments. An unprecedented concentration of power.
In fact, only Leonid Kuchma has been president of Ukraine longer than Zelenskyy. Kuchma had two presidential terms, and Zelenskyy is now in power without elections because of the war. Indeed, there are many comments about this today, whether such a stay in power is legal, whether Zelenskyy is still eligible, whether his decisions are legal, whether he is a legitimate head of state.
Of course, at the moment, holding elections, I will state my position now, is not possible, I do not see how it can be done. We understand that it would be possible to hold electronic elections, elections in an electronic format in Ukraine, which is the only format that ensures the safety of citizens and the security of the electoral process. But in order to hold electronic elections, we need a serious political consensus between all political elites, between all political parties. We need an agreement, we need to agree that all the leading parties, whether they are represented in parliament or not, but also have strong support from voters, should endorse this decision. But you and I understand that the monopoly power of Volodymyr Zelenskyy does not allow for any compromises or agreements. Everything is managed by the Office of the President and, in principle, the Office of the Servant of the People has never considered it necessary that they need any unity or compromises or agreements with other political parties. And of course, when one party controls the political process and when there are so many corruption scandals, so many ongoing conflicts in the field of law and order, injustice, it is not possible to say that the authorities can be solely entrusted with electronic elections. Therefore, unfortunately, it is impossible to hold electronic elections in Ukraine.
Well, as we can see, in principle, President Zelenskyy does not want to do this, he is quite satisfied that he will continue to exercise his powers and continue to monopolistically control all power. During the war, his powers were even increased. Therefore, friends, electronic elections are impossible, and elections that are normal by law are really extremely dangerous in a situation where Russia is destroying everything in Ukraine. So, unfortunately, there will be no elections, no change of government. And so, despite the expiration of the presidential term, Volodymyr Zelenskyy continues to rule Ukraine and the Ukrainian government alone. Well, not all of Ukraine. Ukraine is first and foremost the people, but the entire Ukrainian government. So, friends, this will continue for an absolutely indefinite period of time. The idea is a brutal war, and there are no prerequisites for the government to try to organise an electronic election system. There are no prospects for the government to build such a stable front and stabilise the situation at the front. In my opinion, any elections are possible and political changes are possible only if the Ukrainian state, the Ukrainian army, the defence forces are able to stop the enemy's offensive, stabilise the front along its entire length, along the borders with the Russian Federation, and only when the front is stabilised will it make sense to talk about political changes in the elections. But, unfortunately, we see that the enemy continues to put pressure, to stop it, to carry out some kind of reorganisation, reform of the defence forces, the defence system, and the war strategy. Unfortunately, this is not happening yet, so Volodymyr Zelenskyy continues to lead and will continue to lead for some time. We don't know how long, it could be a year, two years, three years, it's still unknown. Absolutely. And, in principle, it should be noted that Zelenskyy is quite satisfied with this, he is not concerned about this situation, he is satisfied with everything, his entourage, Andriy Yermak and all other servants of the people are also satisfied.
A lot of prophetic things have been said by Volodymyr Zelenskyy over the past five years, but, of course, the main theme of his presidency, by which he will be judged, is the war with Russia. And, of course, the assessment in the history of Volodymyr Zelenskyy will depend directly on the results of the war, on the losses that Ukraine will suffer and that Ukraine has already suffered. And this is the main thing on which, in principle, it was obvious that Volodymyr Zelenskyy would be judged, and this is the main conclusion of his life. Therefore, we will, of course, begin the assessment of his activities with the war. And with defence.
What happened? Let us briefly summarise. Well, the first question. Preparation for war. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has chosen a course to actually wind down hostilities. He has constantly stated that the war must end, that there will be no war. He repeatedly stated, even in 2020, that the war would end by the end of the year. There were many, many words. And there was constant boasting that the comprehensive ceasefire that took place was the path to peace, and that there could be no conflict and no war with Russia. There is a Normandy format, a comprehensive ceasefire, everything is fine, everything is being resolved. As we can see now, all this was a game by the Kremlin, by the Russian Federation, and under the guise of these conversations with Zelenskyy, Putin was actively deploying troops, new divisions, massive supplies of new weapons, and manoeuvres to practice invading Ukraine. Unfortunately, at this time, Ukraine... the time of preparation for war was simply disrupted. This is a real sabotage by the authorities, and this sabotage is the responsibility of Volodymyr Zelenskyy. That is why I have already written about this and can only say one main thing. Putin has his hands in the blood of Ukrainians, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy has his tongue in the blood. He has a long tongue, with which he promised a truce, told people that there was no need to panic, there would be no war, everything was fine, barbecues in May, no worries and no preparation was needed at all. And it must be said that, in fact, Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not prepare for war for all two and a half years of peaceful life, relatively peaceful, limited to the fighting in Donbas, and did not really do anything. Over these two and a half years, the servant of the people, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has not purchased, I emphasise, not a single artillery shell, not a single contract. Not a single missile, not an anti-aircraft missile, not an anti-tank missile, not a single one. Not a single "Stugna" anti-tank missile system, the main means of stopping Russian convoys, was put into service with the army. That is, there was a complete failure in the supply of weapons to the army, a complete failure.
And, of course, other events followed in a chain, meaning that the army was not preparing for hostilities and it was constantly repeated that there would be a truce, that concessions were needed. There were special orders issued by the Minister of Defence Taran, which even withdrew bonuses from the soldiers who fired at the Russian occupiers in Donbas. The main thing, indeed, is that in addition to the failed preparations for the war, the mobilisation deployment was also a complete failure. Despite constant warnings from our Western partners that the war would begin in winter, that Putin would attack in February, there was no deployment of territorial defence forces at all, no conscription of first- or second-line operational reserve soldiers was organised, the troops were not replenished, and no funds were allocated for the repair and purchase of military equipment and munitions. And one of the worst things is that there was no deployment of the active army on the path of the Russian Federation's offensive. We now know that CIA Director Burns flew in January, he said so himself in an interview, and it was indeed in official reports. He flew to Ukraine and reported the Russian Federation's plan of attack a month before the invasion, and this plan was accurate. Our intelligence told the country's leadership that the first strike would be, the war would begin with a Russian helicopter landing at the Gostomel airfield, that the enemy would come from different directions, the plan of the Russian offensive was repeatedly made public by all the media. By Bild, by CNN, by many sources. And the enemy went exactly as it was drawn. And, unfortunately, we were not prepared at all.
The enemy attacked rapidly, and unfortunately, it fulfilled, even exceeded, all expectations. The speed of the Russian advance in the south was simply staggering. Not a single bridge was blown up, neither in the north nor in the south of the country. In one day, the enemy overcame 200 kilometres from the borders with Belarus and Russia and reached Kyiv, Gostomel, Irpin. In one day. There were several bridges there, and not a single one was blown up in the Chernobyl zone or elsewhere. We lost the south in four days. On the first day of the war, the enemy advanced up to 100 kilometres. Not a single bridge was blown up, not a single dam was blown up on the Chonhar. And you can watch on my channel an interview with the marines of the 137th battalion, one of the groups that, together with the hero of Ukraine, sailor Skakun, blew up the Henichesk bridge. Unfortunately, one span of this bridge. And it's just an amazing story, really. Basically, a group of sailors, a group of soldiers, a few soldiers who were conscripts yesterday, on their own initiative at 11.00 a.m., after the start of the invasion, 6 hours after the start of the invasion, brought a trailer with explosives to the bridge. The enemy was not coming there, it was just a secondary direction for them, they were going through Chonhar, no one blew anything up there. But these soldiers pulled out one of the trucks themselves, the detonators and fuses were not working. And then, at the cost of his life, sailor Skakun blew up the bridge. One span. Without any officers or commanders on the spot. I strongly advise you to watch this video, it tells you everything about preparations for war and the preparation of blowing up bridges.
The failure to blow up the bridges led to the enemy seizing three bridges on the same day, 24 February 2022 - Zaliznychnyi, Antonivskyi and the dam across the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station. All three major crossings of the Dnieper. And the next day, he moved into the Kherson region. On the sixth day of the war, the enemy captured Kherson. On the second day of the war, 25 February, the enemy captured Melitopol, a key city in southern Ukraine. On the fifth day of the war, the enemy surrounded Mariupol. On the third of March, the enemy completely surrounded Mariupol from all sides in seven days, a week into the war.
There was virtually no resistance, as the troops were deployed in very small, small units and they did not even have time to take up defence. Everything was done to surrender the south of Ukraine. And any investigation, if ever conducted, will show that the south of Ukraine was prepared for surrender, there were no serious troops there. Just so you understand, the entire southern direction to Mariupol was thrown out in a couple of days, literally before the invasion, ostensibly to cover one battalion of the 59th Brigade. Three hundred people. It's just ridiculous. The Russians had a division advancing in that direction. This is just a striking picture of real treason, and the country's leadership, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the pro-Russian agents he brought into power, some of whom are still in charge of this government, unfortunately, are responsible for this.
I would like to remind you that this distorted reality was distorted by the fact that Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at the suggestion of his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, appointed Ruslan Demchenko as the head of the intelligence committee, i.e. the main person responsible for informing him and the entire state about the enemy's preparations for war. And Ruslan Demchenko was the First Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine under Yanukovych and one of the co-authors of the shameful Kharkiv agreements. That is, he is a well-known Russophile who was subject to lustration, who was an adviser to President Petro Poroshenko, but Volodymyr Zelenskyy promoted him and generally gave him the highest powers in the field of intelligence and security of Ukraine.
He is the head of the Intelligence Committee, appointed by presidential decree. I want to say this to assess the credibility of Demchenko's work. Demchenko was actually suspended from his duties on the very first day of the Russian invasion. Everything he said about the ceasefire was just Russian disinformation, which he passed on to the very top. And I want to say that Ruslan Demchenko is still free, he has not been detained. He is doing well, just like other Russian agents.
The fall of the South, I mean, the loss of the South, was also directly related to the personnel decisions of Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He appointed Oleh Kulinich as the head of the Main Directorate of the Security Service for the Republic of Crimea, which completely controlled the South, all our counterintelligence work in Crimea. Oleh Kulinich is now in prison, he is accused of high treason and he has been found to be working for the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation.
Since 2020, Kulinich has been in full control of the entire situation in the South. It was Kulinich who, during his visits with Zelenskyy in 2021-2022, represented and fully controlled Zelenskyy's meetings with the military command and combat readiness checks. In 2021, the commander of the Southern Military Group, General Myroniuk, reported to Zelenskyy on the state of readiness of the troops, and Kulinich was present to listen to him. In 2022, Kulinich led anti-terrorist exercises that President Zelenskyy himself attended in February 2022.
Kulinich was telling us how he would be, how the SSU and other law enforcement and security agencies were ready to defend bridges, among other things. This is the kind of person who is now in prison, and he became the head of the main department under Volodymyr Zelenskyy. And he was the right-hand man of the head of the SSU, Ivan Bakanov. So why be surprised? The enemy Russian Federation clearly knew that there would be no resistance in the South. And the Russians simply drove through the South, seized bridges and invaded the Kherson region, reached Mykolaiv, Voznesensk. And they surrounded Mariupol, and two of our brigades were surrounded there. Unfortunately, after heroic battles exactly two years ago, they were forced to lay down their arms and stop resisting by Zelenskyy's order. Due to the complete loss of ammunition, food, and medicine. Therefore, the preparation for the war and the outbreak of the war is the full responsibility of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and his entire entourage, as well as he himself, will be held accountable in the court of history, and I am sure that someday the government will change, and Zelenskyy will be held accountable in court. He is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Ukrainians, the loss of vast territories of Ukraine that the enemy captured almost without a fight. And then, with heavy losses, we fight to try to regain this land. Unfortunately, the enemy has outnumbered us and continues to do so. So this is about the consequences of decisions.
It's also important to say that the appointment of traitors, the loss of the south, the rapid passage of the enemy - the same picture was in the north. I emphasise once again that the enemy passed through to Kyiv with minimal fighting and resistance. His main group entered Kyiv and then such fierce battles broke out near Kyiv in Makariv, Irpin, Bucha, and Hostomel. From where the population had not been evacuated, the territorial defence forces joined the battle from the east together with volunteers. The 72nd Mechanised Brigade began deploying to cover Kyiv, Hostomel and Irpin right on the last day before the invasion and did not have time to take up combat positions. I would like to say that most of our formations, unfortunately, due to the fact that the commands were given late and under the personal responsibility of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, were deployed almost off the wheels. Most of our brigades did not have time to move to the defence areas assigned to them. All of this had tragic and terrible consequences: mass killings of civilians, heavy losses of our troops who had to save the situation, heavy losses of volunteers who had to engage in combat almost unarmed and unprepared to stop the Russian convoys. Of course, the Russians who killed Ukrainians were responsible for these casualties, but the greatest conditions for the enemy to do so, to weaken Ukraine as much as possible, were created by Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his team. Andriy Yermak, who told us so much about peace with Russia, that he had agreed on everything. So it is Volodymyr Zelenskyy who is responsible for this blood, for this misery, for this destruction, it is already in history forever, and he will never be able to wash himself of it. The only way he can justify himself is that he has to win the war, win the victory.
Unfortunately, we see that the situation is difficult, and if we talk about Zelenskyy's real achievements during the war, I will tell you that there are not many of them that we can talk about the pros and results, but we have to start with them. During the war, that is, after the failure of preparation, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, I think, took two steps that I really consider objective and worth noting.
Since 2023, the state has begun to fund some important projects for the production of heavy night bombers and heavy copters on a larger scale. It was a successful project, and even now I won't say how much of the development was done by volunteers. The units were also created by volunteers, enthusiasts, members of the National Guard, the Armed Forces, and the Security Service. They fought on a voluntary basis, building and developing drones at their own expense. In 2023, thanks to the efforts of Zelenskyy's decision, which was implemented by Minister of Digitalisation Fedorov, some of our units received state funding, which allowed us to dramatically increase the number of night bombers. And this has caused the enemy to suffer terrible losses, I won't even give you the exact figures at the moment, but it is literally thousands of weapons and military equipment that the enemy has lost as a result of drone strikes. And this is not an exaggeration, because all the strikes are recorded on video with reference to coordinates. And this is a fact.
Drones, in fact, became the main means of destroying Russian armoured vehicles as early as 2023. And Russian weapons in general. Both anti-aircraft missile systems and all other weapons systems. Artillery, tanks. This is a positive, a plus. The second plus is that production was increased, and a budget was allocated for the deployment of ammunition and heavy weapons production. Due to the fact that funding was made available, Ukraine contracted the production of artillery guns, primarily "Bohdan". And now the production of "Bohdan" is increasing, as our Western partners cannot supply us with the required amount of artillery, demand is high, and there are significant losses. The production of "Bohdan" is a significant strengthening of the Armed Forces, a good example of the state scaling up the right projects that are being improved. Perhaps, of course, the "Bohdan" is not yet up to the "Caesar", but over time, as soon as it has an automated fire control system, it will be, in principle, a good domestic complement to this Western artillery. All this was developed before and scaled up during the war. This can be noted.
That's how the production of ammunition, mortar shells, I would say, began. Unfortunately, this is just the beginning and the scale of production is not as large as we need for the war. The main supplies are 99% from NATO countries, but we have started to move, and we hope it will work well. As for drones, in 2024, the government began to scale up the production of attack drones, the Ukrainian equivalent of the "Shaheds". We know about the very effective "Lutyi" project, which is now very well suited to take out Russian oil refineries. So this is, let's say, on the positive side. I think we all understand the negative aspects of what is happening in the defence sector. To stop an enemy that outnumbers us, we need structural changes in the army. And what is changing structurally? The command and control system is not tied to the destruction of the enemy in the area of responsibility, but is aimed at holding certain points on the map. And our brigade commanders and generals are primarily dispatchers who sit and control certain points of the territory. And, unfortunately, they are very limited in their ability to perform tactical tasks. There were no such restrictions at the beginning of the war. Our troops fought manoeuvre battles, they were more flexible in tactics and management than the Russians, and because of this, they had a significant advantage. Now we have actually lost this advantage. This charade with the change, I want to say that in the ground forces alone, we have already replaced, I don't know, a hundred brigadiers. Seventy-three in the 23rd Army alone. Does this lead to positive results?
Unfortunately, not always. The army continues to be bureaucratised, the volume of paperwork is increasing, and we see no reforms in this area. Furthermore, the paper army continues. The disenfranchisement of servicemen, I think, is obvious to everyone. There is no feedback from the military, although it is critically needed for a mobilised army, a huge pile of problems that people do not know how to solve. Restrictions, violations of their rights, how to get feedback, effective response. Unfortunately, there are big problems with this. Next, the issue of drones. We have now made a loud announcement about the creation of unmanned systems forces, but unfortunately, these are still empty words. There is no regulation on the unmanned systems forces, no regulatory framework, no powers, all of which have been forgotten. In other words, President Zelenskyy wrote the decree, but he is in no hurry to implement it. To be honest, it's a very strange behaviour. Imitation instead of action.
Unfortunately, the scaling up of drones in Ukraine remains a bottom-up issue, a matter of self-organisation of commanders, volunteers and everything else. Unfortunately, drones are not used systematically. I would like to say that most of the drones at the frontline, which show wonderful videos of the destruction of the Russian occupiers, are still volunteer drones purchased from private companies by the military and volunteers themselves. The one million drones promised by President Zelenskyy is actually a small figure if it is done centrally, and there are still no massive deliveries to the front at all. They took 40 billion and said there was a big budget for drones, but where is it? So it is still not at the front. None of this is supported by the facts. And, unfortunately, the enemy now has an advantage in many types of drones and is increasing this advantage, increasing the advantage over us. Russian drones are now a very dangerous and major factor influencing the fighting. Drones that fly up to 100 kilometres into our rear, quietly observe, identify targets, and guide them. Other long-range drones are a big problem for us, which is also not being solved. And the issue of defensive lines. Unfortunately, I will soon show you how the defence lines were prepared and their condition in the Kharkiv region so that you can see some objects objectively. We still can't stop the enemy because of the lack of quality defence lines. And still no one is responsible for this. We still see complete unpreparedness. The enemy's offensive near Kharkiv showed that the proportions drawn on the map, where some headquarters and units are located, show that there are defence lines, 3 or 4 even. But none of this works in practice. Planning, unfortunately, lags behind real statements. The authorities still cannot cope with this task, and it is one of the key ones.
Well, the main issue in war is the correct use of people. Here, too, reforms are needed, changes are needed, and all this is not there. And it is not there because there is still a key problem - the problem of leadership. The problem of appointing and promoting commanders. Not those commanders who are always in a good mood, who calmly report that everything is fine, everything is tense, but under control, don't worry. We have no problems, all the problems are because either neighbouring units are doing something wrong, or soldiers are doing something wrong, or someone is doing something wrong. This irresponsibility that is cultivated in our army comes from the top. Because we have the right report, it is much more important than the result. Responsibility for the result. This is the main problem. We will also talk about this, because this story with General Sodol, Syrskyi, everything that is happening in the army now is worth a separate broadcast.
This is about defence. If there are no reforms, Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not allow Ukraine to win the war. He will simply not allow it by inaction. We need changes. And this is not a political issue. We are all in the same boat. If the authorities need it, anyone will come to the rescue without any politicisation, without any publicity. By the way, I also offered some of my advice and suggestions to the Ukrainian leadership about this. But they live like this and do not listen to anyone. They believe that they understand and do everything better than anyone else. And, unfortunately, we see this rake running around, which is constantly going on, and no one draws any conclusions. Poor decisions continue, imitation of building a defence line and imitation of reforms in the army continue. But there are no structural changes. Only words, and the government is constantly looking for someone to blame. Who else but Zelenskyy is to blame for the bad situation in the army? Is Zaluzhnyi to blame? Now there are other generals to blame. Someone is always to blame. Someone is always to blame, except for the Supreme Command and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, who controls all this, appoints people, removes people, allocates resources, allocates money, organises the work of local authorities. There are no complaints against him. The authorities have claims only against the executives. As long as this irresponsibility and shifting of responsibility to someone else continues, of course, we cannot expect any organised decisions from the authorities.
Now, foreign policy. The main thing that has happened here. I've talked to many people, even on my Facebook page, and asked them what the achievements were. I would like to say that in terms of foreign policy, a very important achievement was certainly the continued course towards European integration. Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not deviate from it and continued it, and there were no changes or restrictions. And this is really an achievement in my eyes that needs to be noted. In parallel, there was a track called "Rapprochement with Russia", but European integration was not curtailed, and integration with NATO was not curtailed either, although it was a real threat. In foreign policy, we see that there was complete chaos, there was such a fuss and attempts to sneak through with Belarus, to establish relations with Russia, and trade with both Russia and Belarus was increasing. In other words, there were some attempts to take steps towards rapprochement. All this foreign policy turned out to be a failure because it was actually a cover for preparations for aggression. So, in general, if I say it's a big minus, the huge European integration is a plus, but it's a smaller plus, because in fact Russia was allowed to prepare for war. In addition, another disadvantage, which I think each of us experienced, was that for many months the West and NATO countries convinced us that we were at war, and the government and the servants of the people said that there would be no war, that these were all provocations that they did not believe in. So it was a complete shock. The beginning of the invasion was a shock for many Ukrainians and for our partners, not everyone was ready. But here, after Volodymyr Zelenskyy simply threw us all into such a terrible war with Putin, he was not ready, did nothing to protect Ukraine, prepare it for war, protect civilians, prepare evacuations, deploy troops. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the war, many people really thought that Zelenskyy would just run away. To be honest, the risk was very high. He surrounded himself with so many Russian agents, some of whom are already in prison, some of whom are still with him, some of whom are suspended, that the risk of him running away was quite high. But it should be noted that Volodymyr Zelenskyy, when he saw how many people took to the streets and simply formed queues for days outside military registration and enlistment offices, he realised that the country had changed. If Zelenskyy had run away or not taken a decisive stance, he would have lost legitimacy, even as president. This person would simply no longer be seen as a leader in the country. And, of course, this is why the phenomenon of Valeriy Zaluzhnyi emerged, because at the beginning of the war, when the country did not know whether Zelenskyy could be trusted at all and whether it could listen to his orders and commands, the army certainly followed Zaluzhnyi's commands and orders. And Zaluzhnyi was the leader of the resistance who united the nation around him. That is, it was not even any obvious military achievements at first. It was just a symbol, a flag that people had to follow. And which they trusted. But I must say that at the beginning of the war, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he would not run away, he would stay in Kyiv, he demanded weapons, not the asylum that our Western partners were giving him. And this was a very important factor in mobilisation. And with this statement, such a boom and respect for Volodymyr Zelenskyy began in the world.
Of course, he used his popularity in the West to Ukraine's advantage. He pursued an active foreign policy, made statements around the world, and completely rebuilt himself. Before 24 February, he was a man who wanted to look Putin in the eye. And Putin was there for him, that was all. He tried to do everything to reach an agreement with Putin. And after 24 February, Zelenskyy immediately changed course, forgot about all the Russophile statements and became a person who began to personify, especially in the eyes of the Western world, which is far from our internal issues, a symbol of Ukraine's resistance. He actively gave interviews, he loves to give interviews with all the Western media, and this great work that he did was really important, and it was important for Ukraine, important at that time, and he devoted most of his time to it. Interviews, communication, statements. So in this respect, it should be noted as a plus after the invasion began.
Now, we see that the cooperation and trust of our Western partners is not in everything, not all the solutions that the West offers us are accepted by Zelenskyy. Personally, the most recent story is when Zelenskyy fired Kubrakov, the Minister of Infrastructure, allowed him to be fired in order to give the issue of allocating budget funds allocated to us by the West, by Western countries for the restoration of the country, to Kubrakov's opponent, the all-powerful Andriy Yermak and his people. This is just such an example. Western countries were against Yermak taking control of this area as well. But no warnings from Western diplomats worked, and Kubrakov was told to leave. So it's quite an interesting story now. Unfortunately, where it is necessary to demand and blame the West, Zelenskyy is very convincing, he is very good at demanding. But when it comes to cooperating with the West, Zelenskyy is always ineffective and he doesn't really want to. And such forced steps, unfortunately, go hand in hand with steps when he simply turns against the West or refuses to cooperate. So, unfortunately, not all of our partnerships there are adequate. And, unfortunately, after even Ambassador to the UK Prystaiko said that we were making inadequate statements about our ally in the UK, it ended with Zelenskyy immediately recalling Prystaiko and firing him. Now no one in the government makes any comments about the president. Everything is probably fine now.
Next. Domestic policy. Domestic politics, if we talk about the pros. Zelenskyy has completely removed Viktor Medvedchuk, Putin's godfather, and exchanged him for prisoners. Zelenskyy has taken quite serious steps to limit the influence of the Moscow Patriarchate. And Zelenskyy implemented the law on party-list elections. So these are really serious decisions in terms of domestic policy that can be credited.
Unfortunately, there are, as always, an enormous number of disadvantages in domestic politics. It is impossible to list them all. The main thing, in my opinion, is that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is actually an enemy of freedom of speech. He is doing everything he can to limit democracy in Ukraine in terms of freedom of speech and freedom of the media. A very dangerous project is the monopolisation of the television space, the creation of a television marathon, when Zelenskyy actually took all the TV channels of Ukrainian oligarchs to maintain the state budget of Ukraine. In addition, Zelenskyy is also financing from the state budget the creation of several other state-owned channels with meagre ratings, which are distinguished only by the government's unrestrained, non-stop PR. And that's all. And, of course, the struggle with critics of the government, with opponents of the government. That is, freedom of speech and democracy are the main safeguards of Ukrainian democracy. And the fact that Zelenskyy has now actually restricted it is a great threat to society. And this is a big problem for society and our state.
Now, to the minuses. Instead of a grouping close to the Party of Regions and Medvedchuk's pro-Russian leaders, Volodymyr Zelenskyy replaced it with another team from the regions that has pro-Russian roots and influence. This is the team of Yermak, Portnov, Firtash, and Lovochkin, who joined them. That is, this is the other side. Unfortunately, one group in the Opposition Platform for Life, which was in contact with Moscow, was replaced by another group in the Opposition Platform for Life, which was in contact with Moscow. But if Poroshenko was rebuilding relations with Russia through Medvedchuk, and in Moscow through Vladislav Surkov, Putin's adviser, Yermak replaced this structure, Zelenskyy replaced this structure. He started working with Russia, for example, through Yermak and his influence, through Portnov and his influence. And through other pro-Russian figures in the government who remained here. I want to remind you that most of the OPFL is here, including Boyko and everyone else. And they built this system of relations with Russia through other people. Instead of Surkov, Putin put Dmytro Kozak, the deputy head of the Russian presidential administration, in contact with Yermak. This changed the channels of communication. Unfortunately, this also led to tragic consequences. This is another big disadvantage of monopoly power. In fact, any independence, any subjectivity of the parliament, the government, has been virtually destroyed. All those in the government, in parliament who tried to pursue an independent policy, in the National Security Council, or somehow build their own line of behaviour, some institutional changes, steps, all these people have been removed. And now, in fact, the power is monopolised not just by Zelenskyy himself, it is not monopolised by him. Most of the decisions in the country are made solely by Andriy Yermak, the head of the President's Office, whose powers are not defined in the Constitution at all. He is simply the head of the office, the head of the secretaries and the president's support staff. But in Ukraine, this person decides even more than Zelenskyy. In fact, Yermak decides on most of the appointments in the security forces, law enforcement agencies, and all other government agencies. He prepares all the decisions. And the role of the parliament has been reduced to that of mere button-pushers, people who carry out Yermak's command, and they have no other options. The same is true of the Cabinet of Ministers. The Cabinet of Ministers is created to carry out the instructions of the head of the Office. Zelenskyy himself deals with very limited issues, primarily foreign policy communications, information policy and government PR. That is all.
There is a very interesting article in The Economist about Zelenskyy shouting at the generals because they are not providing him with reliable information about the situation at the front. Again, this is PR, because instead of clear tasking and control, we have shouting, scenes, and acting. Unfortunately, the president has now chosen to play the role of an actor who reads out texts prepared by Yermak's apparatus, who follows the line that Yermak determines in many issues of economy and domestic policy. And Yermak's influence is now decisive. In many issues, everyone understands that communication with Zelenskyy is ineffective. It is important to build a relationship with Yermak. The Yermakisation of power is also unprecedented in the history of Ukraine. I remember when Dmytro Tabachnyk, the head of the presidential administration, was criticised under Kuchma, and now Yermak. He has much more power than Tabachnyk. Another factor that is important and very dangerous for Ukraine is that Zelenskyy has actually neglected and almost stopped paying attention to the lustration law. Interestingly, in a discussion with Poroshenko at the famous stadium in 2019, Zelenskyy accused Poroshenko of forgetting about lustration. We can even recall the first phrases: "Volunteers and patriots are in prison. Because they are a threat to you? Do you remember the word lustration? All people who break the law..." It's funny that a huge number of lustrated officials from the Yanukovych era, such as Demchenko, for example, have stopped paying attention to lustration. They, like Oleh Tatarov, deputy head of the Presidential Office for Security Forces. All of them should not have been in their positions because they should have been lustrated. Another deputy head of the Presidential Office is Rostyslav Shurma. All of them should not have been in power, but they are in power. Because lustration does not work in Ukraine. And instead of the team of the Party of Regions that Poroshenko worked with, that is, Medvedchuk, Zelenskyy did not cooperate, but actually gave power to the team of the Party of Regions led by Yermak. This did not even happen under Poroshenko. Because, you see, Yermak himself is an assistant to the Party of Regions deputy Elbrus Tedeev. Oleh Tatarov under Yanukovych was the third most influential person in the country, overseeing all law enforcement and judicial bodies, and deputy head of the Presidential Office. He was a lawyer for Andriy Portnov, the deputy head of Yanukovych's presidential administration. He was the deputy head of the Investigation Department under the Minister of Internal Affairs, Oleksandr Zakharchenko, and he gave press conferences with him. Oleh Tatarov fought against Maidan and said that everyone on Maidan was killing themselves and provoking clashes with Berkut, fighting and being beaten themselves. That is, Oleh Tatarov, Rostislav Shurma, one of Rinat Akhmetov's managers and the head of the Zaporizhzhia regional organisation of the Party of Regions. Andriy Portnov. He has a huge influence. Suffice it to say that two deputy heads of the Presidential Office, Oleh Tatarov and Andriy Smirnov, were Portnov's lawyers. Tatarov is on very close terms with him. Portnov is still in power and decides everything he wants. Ruslan Demchenko from the Party of Regions, First Deputy Foreign Minister, as he said, was the head of the intelligence committee under Zelenskyy. That is, a huge number of steps were connected, and it was the Party of Regions, the anti-Maidan, the enemies of the Maidan who tried to suppress it, that gained enormous influence under Zelenskyy. And all this is due to the fact that lustration is not working. That is, Zelenskyy gave power and control to the people who were under Yanukovych. And for whom the Maidan and everything that happened after it was just a personal big problem that they were fighting. So this is also a huge disadvantage in terms of domestic policy.
Next, let's turn to the next point - the results. Let's look at the economy. In terms of the economy, of course, everyone notes as a plus the large-scale construction of roads and infrastructure led by Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Yes, it really happened. And it should be noted that Ukraine definitely needs such infrastructure projects. Now I won't talk about big lending, there was corruption, this is another block. Also, among the socio-economic achievements, everyone notes digitalisation, the creation of the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Diia app, where many functions work electronically. You can criticise Diia, but it is really convenient, it is a step forward, and it is what the country needs, the right direction of development and reform. This is also thanks to the solutions implemented by Zelenskyy. They have brought concrete results. Also, most economic experts talk about the positive effects of the land reform, which may be imperfect, but has been carried out on a large scale. For the first time, Zelenskyy introduced a land market. It is not perfect, there are many nuances and drawbacks that, of course, do not allow the land market to work in full. But this is really the basis, and the moratorium on land sales has been cancelled. I think this is still worth noting as a reform that is a step forward for a certain part of our agribusinesses. Basically, that's all there is to the economy. Unfortunately, when it comes to reforms in other sectors of the economy, they are virtually non-existent. Unfortunately, his election promises that taxes would be reduced, economic stimulus and lending would be provided - none of this works. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not been able to implement any structural reforms for economic growth. And the business environment in Ukraine, as we were, was low in the competitiveness ranking. Unfortunately, even lower than Russia, lower than Belarus. Unfortunately, this is where we are now in terms of business. Both administrative procedures and all permitting procedures are still, unfortunately, very complicated. And where there is complexity, corruption immediately arises. So I won't talk too much about the disadvantages of what is happening in our economy. I think it is obvious to everyone now. And yes, all of this is influenced by the war, you could say. But the war was also under Poroshenko, and before that, when Zelenskyy came to power, and he knew where he was going and made promises to ensure economic growth in these difficult conditions, to simplify the permitting system, to reduce the number of officials, bureaucrats, permitting procedures, bureaucratic burden, to simplify the tax system, to stop this madness when businesses have to work for auditors, accountants, lawyers in an incredible number. All this has been said, all this has been promised, all this is not there. And the investment climate is just terrible, it scares away even the Ukrainian businessmen themselves. It's not the war, it's these actions of the authorities. The last block that is important to mention is the fight against corruption and law and order in Ukraine. Friends, I don't even know, there are no advantages here at all. We see a large number of detentions, a large number of cases opened. But who, which government officials have been sentenced and gone to prison thanks to our law enforcement agencies? We have the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, and the High Anti-Corruption Court. All of these institutions were created before Volodymyr Zelenskyy and they are working. And the huge number of law enforcement agencies, the Security Service of Ukraine, the State Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Economic Security, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the National Police - all these numerous law enforcement agencies that exist, unfortunately, are associated exclusively with raids on business. With state racketeering. Unfortunately, this has not changed at all.
Smuggling has flourished and is still flourishing, despite Volodymyr Zelenskyy's numerous promises that it will be overcome. And how can it be overcome when people who are associated with smuggling by the media, such as the Sliusarevs and Pavliuks, continue to be close to the president, continue to be his support, and the Servant of the People party, solve issues, have their own influences, MPs and officials at various levels. Unfortunately, in terms of fighting corruption, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not just a zero, he is a minus. A big minus for the country. Unfortunately, all these promises about fighting corruption have turned out to be a lie in five years. What is particularly outrageous in terms of corruption is that the system created has legitimised state racketeering, headed by Mr Hetmantsev. Blocking tax invoices is one of the main means of shadowing the economy, destroying Ukrainian business and entrepreneurship. And this is simply out of the ordinary, no other country has this. We have a lot of people saying that economic reforms are impossible during the war, law enforcement cannot fight it, there is corruption.
Friends, Israel has been fighting a war for independence continuously since 1948, since its creation. And this has not hindered the fight against corruption or economic reforms in this country. There is also a war there, huge taxes, a very difficult economic environment for development, but they are doing it. And here, what about the fight against corruption? There is not a day or two when another corruption scandal involving servants of the people does not occur.
Let's have a look. Let's talk about one of our newcomer. The newcomer turned out to be a multimillionaire.
The director, the director of the servant of the people, turned out to be the director of the 95th quarter. He decided to become an energy trader during the war. He registered, bought a share in a company, and now he has won 12 state contracts. At the Prozorro auction, he offers the lowest prices. He buys somewhere. He is just a director who has been to many of the broadcasts of the 95th quarter, his speeches. Where they made very funny jokes about corruption in Ukraine, about all the predecessors. He was on all the broadcasts, the camera was always showing him. And now he himself, in fact, has suddenly become the one whom the 95th quarter was laughing at. That is, the director suddenly became an energy trader. You and I both know that this is just a roof. This person is just a screen. He receives his share, 50% of the company's revenue, only because he can call Zelenskyy and Zelenskyy will say, "Give him electricity, let him trade," and he does everything. So this is real state nepotism. Dear friends in one bottle, and this is every day. There are constant accusations. This month, the Minister of Agrarian Policy Solskyi from the Servant of the People party was just detained. NABU again. Not other law enforcement agencies, but NABU. And this director was not detained, but he is now one of the largest energy traders with the best price on the market. Only because he is a Servant of the People and the 95th quarter. This is how corruption works in our country, friends. It exists in all areas, and Zelenskyy is covering it up. We understand that all this money goes into the pockets of his friends. His friends are business partners with him, they have joint ventures, offshore campaigns. And, of course, as we all understand, he and President Zelenskyy share this money well. Otherwise, he would not have responded to their calls so quickly. And we would not have such unknown energy traders from nowhere. Unfortunately, in terms of corruption, President Zelenskyy is rather at the head of it. As for the fight, he is only paying lip service to it. That is why it is so difficult and we have so many conflicts, because there is a great deal of distrust in the government, because no justice can be expected from it. Declarations, statements, but where real work needs to be done and shown, President Zelenskyy always has big problems with this.
I have said so briefly what I think about the past five years. Now I want to tell you what will happen next. I think that ineffective and monopolistic power, which does not allow the country to respond effectively and be flexible. Zelenskyy's biggest flaw right now is the complete Yermakisation of his power. In fact, Zelenskyy is not an independent politician, he does not determine the actions of the state in most areas. Everything is determined by Yermak. A person who, according to the Constitution, has no powers and no statutory responsibility at all. And now everything has to be decided through Yermak. Imagine, even if a person is super-genius, how can one person manage everything? There is a terrible war going on, 40 million people, and Yermak is all we have. Foreign policy, domestic policy, the appointment of the heads of the defence forces, so you understand, all this is also through Yermak, he controls everything, supervises everything, he is present everywhere, all economic decisions, the distribution of funds, now he has taken everything for himself, even money for the restoration of the country, he controls everything. The parliamentary decisions, the work of the Verkhovna Rada, the largest faction, the Servant of the People, are all Yermak's. Everything is through his office. It's just absurd in general. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has essentially nullified the office of president. Under him, it is more important to be the head of the office than even the president. Because the president is just a person who voices the texts prepared by Yermak's apparatus. Unfortunately, this is the result of five years of Zelenskyy's presidency. The Yermakisation of power is, in my opinion, the biggest threat now. And it is because of this that Yermak is restricting freedom of speech, demanding and seeking funds for the telethon. Imagine, friends, 2 billion hryvnias going to the oligarchs' TV channels to praise Zelenskyy, to tell stories, to broadcast this telethon everywhere. People, we are raising money for drones, weapons, and supplies. For 2 billion hryvnias, you can buy enough drones for the frontline to fight for 4 months with just these drones. But no. Instead, this huge amount of money is spent on Zelenskyy's propagandists, who are supposed to tell people that everything is fine, everything is fine, save your money, save your money, donate a penny to the army, save 100 hryvnias, 200 hryvnias, and we will receive your money from the budget in the meantime. This is such hypocrisy and insolence, such brazen self-promotion and an inordinate desire to praise oneself, a desire to hear applause and ovations. This is very bad acting and this is the worst role, unfortunately, played by Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the author of the libretto for his role, Andriy Yermak.
I am sure that the time will come for these crimes, for this blood that was created, for this corruption, and Zelenskyy Yermak will have to answer for it, because the Ukrainian people are freedom-loving, they remember very well, and trying to deceive them for a long time and keep them as people who do not understand anything and who can be manipulated will end for Zelenskyy sooner or later, as it should. And, of course, the task of civil society, even in times of war, is to remind the authorities of their responsibility and what they are doing. And this is our strength. And, dear friends, we will continue to do this on Butusov Plus thanks to your support, thanks to the way you support my channel. I would like to remind you that 2,300 sponsors of Butusov Plus have already enabled us and our team to go on air and work for you. And, dear friends, our freedom and our democracy, the fact that we can at least communicate with you, if not at the telethon, but on the Internet, and that the people of Ukraine are funding and supporting us, is a guarantee that we will defend our freedom from Putin and any internal attempts at usurpation.
That is why today I am more confident than ever in our victory, that Ukraine will stand, that Ukraine will become strong.
Glory to Ukraine!
