Without law reform, Ukraine will have to “tear the frontline men off the street”, says leader of the ruling party Davyd Arahamija. HS met the representatives of the ruling party of Ukraine and the opposition in Kyiv and discussed, among other things, the strengthening of motion proposals.
Possible big business promotion is currently raging in Ukraine – and also in its parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said in December that the army had requested the mobilization of up to half a million men. On Tuesday, the government submitted a bill to the Verkhovna Rada.
HS met representatives of Ukraine's ruling party and the largest opposition party in Kyiv and discussed with them, among other things, the mobilization law.
Ukrainian the power in the parliament is held by President Zelensky's People's Servant, or Sluha narodu party, which has more than half of the MPs.
The chairman of the party's parliamentary group Davyd Arahamijan according to which the mobilization law is supposed to be discussed in Rada in mid-February.
According to him, the main goal is to get conscripts to register and create a database of them. It would make it easier to plan the business launch, and the invitees would not have to be “torn off the street”.
Arahamija admits that there have been many loopholes in business promotion in Ukraine, which are now supposed to be closed. For example, you could get a postponement for studying only one degree.
“Before the war, we had ten thousand adults who wanted to study for a second degree. Now there are 80,000 of them”, describes Arahamija.
The right of police officers and public sector employees to be exempted from service is also limited. The duration of frontline service is limited to three years.
Now those who went to the front are stuck there “forever” when there are no replacements. The medical sergeant interviewed by HS in Donbas said that desertion has increased.
Davyd Arahamija, the chairman of the parliamentary group of the Sluha Narodu party, admits that there have been many loopholes in the motion proposal.
Ordinary people in Ukraine often criticize the authorities for the fact that “MPs and their family members do not serve in the army.”
According to Arahamija, this is not true.
“There is a long tradition in Ukraine of people hating the parliament. There are a little over 400 of us MPs, and if we went to the front, no laws would be passed in the country. Ten MPs serve in the army. Hundreds of Rada members' relatives, brothers and sons are at the front.”
Arahamia at the beginning of the war, worked in the Ukrainian delegation that negotiated with the Russians in Istanbul.
In November, Arahamija said in an interview that Russia's most important peace condition wa
s Ukraine's non-alignment.
“When we returned from Istanbul, [Kiovaan] arrived [Britannian tuolloinen pääministeri] Boris Johnson and said that we won't sign anything with them, we will go to war,” Arahamija said in November.
Arahamija says to HS that Russia has distorted her interview for propaganda purposes.
“They took my words out of context to make it look like a deal was almost done but the British government blocked it. You have to understand the complexity of the whole thing. Russia wanted us to sign the surrender plan. We negotiated because we wanted to give the army time to do its job. We had no chance to sign anything because there was no guarantee that the Russians wouldn't attack again.”
In the West, some people are proposing negotiations with Russia for Ukraine. In Arahamija's opinion, what would be their chances now?
“All wars end with negotiations. What matters is which position you negotiate. We must first improve our position. For example, if we have enough military equipment, we can launch another counterattack and the Russians want a negotiated solution.”
But how would Russia ever agree to Ukraine's NATO membership?
“I feel that Russia is still changing its views on Ukraine and NATO. Ukraine has a million soldiers and the Russians have said they don't trust anyone in Ukraine because we can attack at any time. NATO would answer to Russia that we don't attack them.”
Recently, there have been reports of disputes between different political parties in Ukraine. According to Arahamija, it is only normal that “politics is back” after a year and a half of unity.
In the year The largest opposition group in the Rada elected in 2019 was originally the For Life coalition, which in turn was founded by the pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych To the ruins of the Party of Regions.
After the great invasion of Russia, the party is banned. Some of its members of parliament continue to operate under the name For life and peaceand they have supported some of Zelensky's legislative projects.
The largest opposition group in parliament today belongs to the previous president Petro Poroshenko The European Solidarity party, which can be considered more right-wing and nationalist than Zelensky's Sluha Narodu.
Member of Parliament for European Solidarity Volodymyr Vyatrovych tells HS that they agree with Zelenskyi's party that defense is Ukraine's number one priority.
However, he complains that Sluha Narodu has not wanted to form a government of national unity, in which Poroshenko's party could also join.
European Solidarity Member of Parliament Volodymyr Vyatrovyt criticizes President Zelenky's party for being amateurish.
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According to Vyatrovych, the confrontation between the Rada, the government and the president has been an important element of democracy in the 32-year history of independent Ukraine. However, now all power institutions are in the possession of Zelenskyi's party.
Vyatrovych criticizes Sluha Narodu for being amateurish.
“Most of them do not have a background in politics, but are from the world of business and entertainment. Before 2019, they did not participate in social life or the Maidans. For example, Arahamija was not in politics at all.”
In his opinion, Sluha Narodu is now taking advantage of the war to concentrate power for itself.
Among other things, it has blocked the digital broadcasts of TV channels owned by Poroshenko and excluded them from TV-Marathon, which is a news program broadcast on other channels.
According to Vyatrovytš, the ruling party has politicized anti-corruption institutions, when, for example, the three most recent chief prosecutors have been representatives of Sluha Narodu.
Vyatrovych's Sluha doesn't want to share his power, but doesn't take responsibility either.
According to him, proof of this is the mobilization law, which the institutions in the party's possession, i.e. the president, the government and the parliamentary group, have foisted on each other.
“As commander-in-chief, the president should decide this issue, but he understands that it's not necessarily a popular decision.”
Vyatrovytsin draws attention to the fact that a year ago, the army asked to lower the age limit for those sent to the front from 27 to 25, but did not receive support from the president. Now the change is being made.
“We've lost a lot of time.”
On some issues, the opposition even agrees with the ruling party – such as the fact that elections cannot be held during a war.
“I don't like this power, but the good thing about it is that it is legitimately elected.”
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