Yermak and Arakhamiia are still in place, coalition isn’t: how Servant of People faction spoke to its president
Tell me, what did we actually expect from this rare meeting between President Zelenskyy and his "Servant of the People" faction?
Andriy Yermak’s resignation? Davyd Arakhamiia being removed as head of the faction? A presidential act of contrition over Mindich-gate, or, on the contrary, a showy execution of those "Servants" who timidly tried to defend, perish the thought, the agency of the largest faction in the history of Ukraine’s parliament?
Most likely, we wanted to see (the key word here is "wanted") a hard but adult conversation between the head of a country at war and the people he personally brought into parliament six years ago. We wanted to see equals talking to equals, a mutual admission of mistakes, and these people radically rethinking the role of the current Verkhovna Rada convocation at this crucial stage in Ukraine’s history.
Not that those six years suggested such a dialogue was even possible. It is hard to recall the last time Volodymyr Zelenskyy showed his faction respect, tried to rally it, or restore MPs’ confidence in their own strength.
And his all-powerful vizier, at that notorious meeting with students, explained the summer attempt by the Presidential Office to strip NABU and SAPO of their independence as if the deputies had simply gone a bit wild and voted for something or other. Even though everyone, absolutely everyone, understood where that attempt was really being orchestrated from.
"We’re so used to working in a ‘fetch-and-carry’ mode that personally I’m not hoping for anything," one of the "Servants" told Censor.NET on the eve of the meeting. "But I’ll come, I’ll watch and listen to the President in these hard times for him and for all of us."
Well then, some 160-plus MPs showed up to "come and listen to the President." Not all of them, however, made it into the hall on the third floor of the Presidential Office. Some deliberately traded attendance at the meeting for a small performance on social media.
Although the practice of taking phones from visitors at the Office of the President is routine and has long been common knowledge, during wartime, it is also as justified as it gets.
The meeting was not a full house, perhaps because it was scheduled quite late, for 8:00 p.m. On the other hand, there were far more people than in October, when the head of state was unhappy with the turnout and even said he wanted to see more people next time; after all, he always shows up for work, so what about the MPs from his faction?
It’s hardly surprising that this time the faction chat message read: a request for all to attend.
Besides Zelenskyy, seated at the "presiding" table were Head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak, Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko, Verkhovna Rada Speaker Vasyl Stefanchuk, his deputy Oleksandr Korniienko, and, of course, Servant of the People faction leader Davyd Arakhamiia.
Three MPs from the Servant of the People faction, speaking on condition of anonymity, described how the meeting went for Censor.NET. Let’s call them Mykola, Borys, and Yukhym.
Of course, it’s hardly possible to recount every twist and turn of a two-hour meeting, but giving a sense of the main points — absolutely. So…
YERMAK, AT YERMAK, ABOUT YERMAK, UNDER YERMAK…
Let’s start with what interested everyone most of all: so what’s the deal with Yermak? As things stand now, the head of the President’s Office has become so toxic that, in many people’s view, he should have been gotten rid of yesterday. The only question is whether the entire structure of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s governing system, in which Andriy Borysovych is both the architect and a load-bearing structure, would collapse after the Office chief’s resignation.
Mykola: "Yermak was beet-red the whole time. It really stood out; I think he was nervous. But the President carefully avoided sharp corners (not only on Yermak), and was so gentle you could put him on a wound. In general, there were photographers there from the start, and Davyd immediately told the President: ‘On the one hand, we want an honest conversation; on the other, given the timing and how much information is spilling out, let’s be frank but in secret language.’ The President basically spoke that way: somewhat generalized, slow, clear, but still in secret language… People asked about this Mindich scandal, each in their own way, but overall the message of those questions could be summed up in one sentence: ‘How could this have been allowed?!’"
There was a question along the lines of: you understand that public trust has been lost — so what are we supposed to do about all this?
The President answered roughly like this: yes, I understand this is a very difficult situation. I’m thinking about what to do about it.
The names of Mindich and the others were not mentioned. Mariana Bezuhla kept jumping in with, "Yermak! Yermak!" The President said, "What is it, Mariana, do you have a question? Look, he’s sitting right there. Andriy, a question for you." Maryana went, "Nooo, my question isn’t for him — it’s for you!"
Borys: "About Mindich and the other figures in the scandal, he said: ‘These people who did it behind my back…’ I got the impression that what happened was truly an unexpected and traumatic experience for him."
Some of the questions were tough: trust is collapsing, the scale of the NABU-exposed schemes is huge. Citizens aren’t fools — they’re asking questions… Out of roughly 20 questions, only two or three were sycophantic; the rest were to the point. And it all boiled down to one thing: what the f*** happened, and what the hell are we supposed to do?!
How did the President react to these questions? Bohdan Yaremenko wrote on Facebook that, in his view, this meeting left neither side feeling satisfied.
By the way, answering a specific question about Andriy raised by Mariana Bezuhla, he said: "This is my personnel prerogative, my personnel policy, it’s for me to decide." And basically, take that however you want…
And answering another question, he said: "it’s clear that I categorically reject this corruption. And it’s clear that I will support the immediate dismissal of everyone who has gotten mixed up in these schemes. And it’s clear that I will also support personnel rotations for those who must bear political responsibility as well."
So we have two different answers in two different places. If you mash them together, you can, in principle, conclude that he isn’t ruling out getting rid of Yermak. But that would be a somewhat manipulative conclusion — because it’s possible there is no connection between those two responses. Or maybe there is one, indirectly.
Yukhym: "Maybe someone was going to ask about Yermak’s desired resignation, but changed their mind. They worded things in a veiled way. Only Bezuhla asked something about ‘your favorite’, meaning Yermak. I didn’t really catch it, because people immediately started hissing at her.
NO COALITION — ARE YOU TIRED OF BEING MPS OR WHAT?
And where was the main opponent, Davyd Arakhamiia, who has a serious conflict with Yermak? Right there at the table, he behaved restrainedly, choosing his words carefully. In general, all the top figures felt that one or two sharp remarks could make the situation blow up, so they had to be cautious.
Borys: "It seems to me Davyd was playing up a warm, friendly atmosphere a bit. But there was tension at that presiding table at first. Maybe the President thought they’d start grilling him about Andriy right away. Or maybe he was damn exhausted, which, by the way, was noticeable."
At the same time, here too the President couldn’t resist being condescending toward his own faction. When the talk turned to a possible coalition collapse (as is known, four more MPs leaving the mono-majority and it’s gone), he explained to deputies that if the coalition falls apart, the law requires snap elections. And since you are unpopular with the public, you should somehow reach an agreement among yourselves.
Yukhym: "When I heard that ‘unpopular’ line, I thought to myself: excuse me, Mr. President, and are you very popular right now? But I only thought it — I didn’t say it."
Mykola: "Unfortunately, nothing has changed. Today we, meaning he, first played the kind, good daddy: patted everyone on the head and said, sure, if there are problems or social programs you’re pushing for; if there are requests, let’s discuss them in the context of the budget and find a way out. Then it shifted to: if the coalition falls apart, then to hell with all of you. Then, back to patting heads again. That’s the whole concept."
None of the MPs raised the topic of a possible coalition, but as I understand it, he had either read or been briefed on the appeal by Poturaiev and company (Poturaiev, Yaremenko, Tretiakova, Tsyba, Vasyliv, Kryvosheiev — Ye.K.). And he said that talk of a coalition was inappropriate — plus, "you are the ones who vote"… And a new coalition, he added, means elections. Which was surprising to hear (he laughs. — Ed.).
It was already known that the sitting guarantor of the Constitution isn’t particularly familiar with the Constitution itself — but surely his advisers and allies (say, the well-known jurist Stefanchuk) should be prompting him…
Borys: "The President said that, in his view, the time to form a coalition had not come; that the mono-majority could still be held together, in essence, move forward as we have done before.
At the same time, he said: ‘…But I am working on my own plan to resolve this crisis. And I will present this plan soon.’
But the line about elections and unpopularity was not said in the way it is now being framed or interpreted. At some point, Davyd (Arakhamiia) mentioned that we were in a tricky situation: if four MPs leave the faction, the mono-majority collapses.
And then the President said: well, if it collapses, that means you’ll have to hold elections. And then it will be up to you to decide how to conduct them during wartime.
From that, I concluded that he still hasn’t read that boring, uninteresting book called the Constitution of Ukraine. Clearly, he thinks that if the mono-coalition collapses, he’ll get the 2019-style opportunity to dissolve parliament. But he’s a bit mistaken. He won’t!
But overall, he wasn’t trying to intimidate us with that line. And in general, the atmosphere was more of a partnership than at the previous meeting."
PERSONNEL WILL FIX EVERYTHING
The faction also raised the issue of who might replace the dismissed ministers of justice and energy. And here too, the President took an interesting jab at his own faction.
Mykola: "He said: when this scandal happened, I reacted quickly — the very next day, or even the same day. And you couldn’t even fire those corrupt officials on day one!" In short: you’re all a bunch of a**holes, and I’m d’Artagnan…
And then, when the talk turned to positions, he said: look, we have two ministerial posts (plus the State Property Fund, though it isn’t "burning" yet) that need to be filled urgently. Do you have worthy candidates? Tell me, Denys (addressing the head of the relevant committee), will you go in as minister of justice?
Denys was like, "Well… if you say so, and my colleagues delegate me — I’ll go…" The President: "See? We already have a ready candidate!"
And then, when questions started coming in, MP Kamelchuk said: "Yes, I have a team, I can take energy!"
Yukhym: "Yeah, we’ve got MPs who are that self-confident — bordering on dumb***ery. Meanwhile, the people who actually know what they’re doing were sitting quietly, because being the energy minister right now is a real electric chair. And you need specialized credentials too — right now, because the energy system is being destroyed right now!"
TALKS WITH AMERICANS ON A PEACE DEAL: NO LOSS OF SOVEREIGNTY CAN BE ALLOWED, WE WILL KEEP WORKING
But first, of course, the faction discussed the war and talks with US partners about "Trump’s plan." The President was asked about the text of the agreement — what it was actually about, and whether it contained any threat to the state.
Borys: "Davyd (Arakhamiia) handled this part very smartly. He said: people have prepared questions overall. We knew you wouldn’t have time for a hundred questions, so we fed those hundred questions (MPs first submitted them anonymously — Ye.K.) into AI and asked it to summarize them. So here’s a list of the consolidated questions I have. And since this topic is on everyone’s mind, we’d like you to start by telling us what was happening at your international meetings abroad and today, because you’ve been meeting with the Americans…"
And the President began to speak. Jumping ahead, for me, his account was the only bright spot of the whole meeting. If you compress it into one point, he said: the situation is difficult, and the negotiations will be difficult. The entire next week will be a week of talks with Americans and Europeans. With the Americans, it will be hard. Among other things, there may be a conversation with Trump, where he will explain our position. He said: I can assure you that no one will agree to surrender national interests. (This was said in the context of how tough the talks will be, so it’s obvious pressure has already started building on him.)
Did he speak in broad, generalized phrases? To some extent, yes. At the start of this block he said outright: sorry, even in our circle I will phrase some things in secret language.
But on the point that no one will surrender national interests, he spoke pointedly, directly, and clearly.
There was good news, too. He said the Europeans are with us, and that weapons and money from Europe will be OK. Yes, Belgium has its position on the assets, and not everything is settled yet. But overall, they are ready to keep helping us further — in the volumes we need.
And one more important thing. When questions about the internal crisis came up, he said (including with the Americans in mind) that no one had pressured him in any way by using the internal crisis. Meaning, the difficulties in the negotiations are separate from what is happening inside our country. And the Americans are more likely pressuring him because of the war itself."
Mykola: "He talked about this in a very "roundabout way", above all else. Like, they didn’t say anything new, and of course, all those things are unacceptable. We’re working, and obviously they’re pressuring us, but, like, we’ll push back; a number of meetings at different levels are scheduled."
Yukhym: "If there was anything on this meeting where people actually felt sorry for the President, it was the negotiations with the Americans on a peace deal. Everyone understands that the pressure on Volodymyr Oleksandrovych from Washington right now is insane. They want to push this through in a few weeks, even before Christmas. And the text contains a bunch of openly pro-Putin provisions. They must not be allowed to go forward. And hardly anyone would want to be in Zelenskyy’s shoes right now. Would you? I wouldn’t!"
KEY MESSAGES FOR DEPUTIES — THE BUDGET, WE WILL DEFEND SOVEREIGNTY
Mykola: "It was said many times that it is extremely important to vote for the budget. Because the IMF mission will come, and God forbid we screw everything up — then there won’t be money for this, that, and the other again." And Svyrydenko was like: "We need to pass the budget so badly, otherwise the IMF won’t give us money!"
Yukhym: "What they need from us is the budget and for the mono-majority not to fall apart. Oh, and for this ‘fetch-and-carry’ mode to keep working. That’s what the messages were aimed at. All those talks about agency that the press wrote about last week — they’re not tuned to that. Why would they be? So we’d have to report to you on our actions too?!"
THE FACTION AND ZE: THE AFTERTASTE
Mykola: "Among the MPs I talked to after the faction meeting, there was a lingering feeling that the President doesn’t really grasp how critical the situation is; he doesn’t feel the depth of the overall crisis and the growing public distrust. That’s what they were trying to tell him: listen, we ride buses and the metro and talk to people more than you do. And there is no trust!
He was like: yes, I understand. But the general impression was: no, he doesn’t fully understand it."
Borys: "I’m left with a positive aftertaste when it comes to his international stance. But I have a very anxious feeling about his assessment of the domestic political situation, because I don’t think he has a realistic understanding of what’s going on — how deep this crisis really is, and that it is going to last."
Yukhym: "The aftertaste is bad. The feeling is one of apathy and stagnation. Everyone knows about the sharp, dangerous issues that exist, but the leadership doesn’t want to apply urgent surgery. Not yet. It doesn’t understand that later it may be too late. And that’s with us not even seriously discussing army matters yet!"
Yevhen Kuzmenko, Censor.NET
