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I Meant Well, Will It Turn Out the Same as Always? What's Wrong with President Zelenskyy's Projects
From the principle of popular rule to a presidential university: the current government looks the most creative of all. Some ideas that Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed while still a presidential candidate are in the process of being implemented, while others haven't even been touched.
Some of them are substantial, some are much smaller. Some required changes to legislation, others did not. But which of the Bankova’s projects are the most memorable? The publication Glavcom compiled its own top list of favorite presidential initiatives.
A Billion Trees
The president’s environmental project (Photo: instagram/@sluga95)
Chronologically, this is the latest invention of the head of state – improving the country’s environment by planting a large number of trees. A very large number.
What it’s about
Volodymyr Zelenskyy initiated an environmental project he called “Green Country.” The project’s goal: to increase Ukraine’s forest area. “We set an ambitious but achievable goal: in 10 years to increase forest area by 1 million hectares. To do this, over the next three years we will plant 1 billion trees,” the head of state emphasized.
There is some confusion in the president’s words: is it three years or ten? Glavcom decided to “dance” from 10 years and, by simple calculations, found that to implement the project one would need to plant 273 976,6 trees per day. Or 11 415,5 trees per hour, or three trees per second. Those who calculated based on three years concluded that one would need to plant 10 trees per second.
Criticism
Theoretically, such a pace could be achieved if you gathered eleven and a half thousand gardeners and gave each one tree. Each would handle a sapling in an hour, perhaps even faster. And if these gardeners worked without breaks for all ten years, our country would indeed turn into a garden. Or a forest. However, the question is not only where to find that many people; the question is also why it would be needed at all.
Here’s what Sviatoslav Pavliuk, director of the association “Energy Efficient Cities of Ukraine,” notes on the subject. “If trees are planted at a density of 1 tree per 5 meters (that’s about the density of a fairly dense forest), then one hectare would contain 492 trees. A square kilometer would have a hundred times more – 49 200 trees. 330 million trees per year would occupy 6 thousand 775 square kilometers. In three years that’s 20,3 thousand square kilometers, which is over 3,6 percent of the territory under Ukraine’s control. According to official data, existing forests now occupy about 16% of the territory. Where to get 330 million seedlings, I won’t even comment. Does the person feeding such ideas to the president have a calculator?” he writes on his Facebook page.
Simply put, there is no room in Ukraine for an extra billion trees. And that’s good, because such planting would turn into an ecological catastrophe, says Oleksiy Vasilyuk, head of the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group. “Ukraine has different ecosystems. Half the country is steppe. We have Polissia with drained wetlands and the Carpathians with forests. The fact that forests in those zones continue to be destroyed seems to interest no one, while the question of establishing new plantations is raised. Why? This idea would make sense if it were about restoring forests destroyed during last year’s fires. They will not plant them in populated areas or on agricultural land. That leaves natural ecosystems – meadows, steppes, wetlands. Altogether they are less than that million hectares. By the way, every third species in our Red Book is steppe-dwelling, and every fifth is a meadow or wetland species. Destroying those species is strictly prohibited by law. This initiative threatens the destruction of our entire nature,” Vasilyuk said in a comment to Radio Svoboda.
And finally about the cost. Implementing “Green Country” will cost the budget at least 2 billion UAH, reports the Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Roman Abramovsky. Whether the Ukrainian budget has an extra two billion is a rhetorical question.
“Big Construction”
“I would like to be a president who will be remembered as a person...” (photo: president.gov.ua)
“Big Construction” preceded the “big gardening.” President Zelenskyy said he wants his name to be associated above all with the successful implementation of infrastructure projects.
What it’s about
“I would like to be a president who will be remembered as the person after whom roads appeared in Ukraine. I want to drive on roads and not be ashamed,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said shortly after his election. A record sum in Ukraine’s history was allocated to the ambitious project – over 120 billion UAH.
Later, when Ukraine in 2020 faced the coronavirus, there were talks that funds from the COVID fund had been redirected to road construction to satisfy the president’s whim. The Verkhovna Rada passed the law “On Amendments to the State Budget of Ukraine for 2020 Year,” which allowed using money from the fight against Covid-19 fund for construction and repair of roads and for purchasing equipment for hospitals.
The most popular joke a year ago was that we would have neither doctors nor vaccines nor ventilators, but all those who died of COVID would be transported to the cemetery on impeccable roads. Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Kyrylo Tymoshenko denied that anyone touched the COVID fund. According to him, Ukravtodor simply received loans from international organizations.
In any case, in February 2021 the president, speaking at the forum “Ukraine 30. Infrastructure,” summed up some interim results. According to him, last year ten times more was done than in the previous 10 years. “Six and a half thousand kilometers of roads. Of these, four thousand are of national importance, and two and a half thousand are local roads,” the president reported. Zelenskyy did not clarify whether these were new roads or repairs of existing ones. The president announced that plans for 2021 year are similar: at least 6 thousand kilometers.
Criticism
“No matter how critical I am of Zelenskyy, the roads really are getting better. The question, of course, is how we will pay for these projects later, since we borrow money from international structures, and whether not only my generation but the next will have to pay for the debts we are creating now?” political scientist Bohdan Petrenko rhetorically asks Glavcom.
And Yevhen Manda, director of the Institute of World Policy, warns: it’s too early to draw conclusions; the quality of the work in Ukraine is tested by the weather. “So far I have noticed changes such as the best current road between Kyiv and Boryspil Airport being redone for some reason. They even hung a sign: ‘By 24 August we will build a new road,’ and that’s such a tacky Soviet-style thing. People say that yes, roads are being built, but the quality of that construction will only become clear in winter. It’s always been the case that roads are tested by snow and rain,” he says.
Financial analyst Oleksiy Kushch draws attention to something else. In his view, however dire the state of Ukrainian roads, something even more dire should have been addressed first. Moreover, the approach to repairing roads is wrong. It would be correct for Ukraine to ensure a full production cycle so the state would derive real benefit. Kushch’s words follow:
“Regarding roads, everything is driven by two main factors: the desire to earn quickly and a lack of understanding of economic mechanisms. There is a belief that the Great Depression in the US was once overcome by road construction. But a hundred years have passed and technologies have changed! Now no one will send thousands of people with hoes and shovels to lay a road. If you want to profit from road construction, create a multiplier that would turn one hryvnia invested in roads into three hryvnias of GDP growth. How to do this? Create an industrial-road cluster in the form of your own bitumen plants, road machinery plants, construction materials, and so on,” Kushch says.
He adds: “But if you take money to buy imported bitumen and imported equipment and to pay wages to Turkish and Chinese workers, meaning profit goes abroad, you are creating incentives exclusively for the growth of foreign companies. Another question: why roads and not, say, utilities? Quality roads will appear only when businesses that want to transport goods on them emerge, when concessionaires appear who will build modern motorways. Roads in Ukraine right now are not problem number one.”
“Problem number one,” Kushch insists, “is the state of basic infrastructure, i.e., sewers, water mains, etc. There are regions where residents still use cesspools; they simply aren’t connected to utilities. So why not invest there? That would create a good multiplier, as pumps, boilers, and other items produced domestically would be purchased. But politicians like to check in at beautiful opened motorways; taking a selfie in front of sewers is somehow not chic.”
“Return and Stay,” Loans “5-7-9”
The head of state promised Ukrainian citizenship to all repatriates (Photo: smr.gov.ua)
“Our answer to Chamberlain,” or rather to relentless migration from Ukraine, in Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s view, should be to encourage migrants to repatriate. But here too something went wrong.
What it’s about
In December 2019, Zelenskyy announced on Facebook the launch of the state program “Return and Stay,” aimed at bringing labor migrants back to Ukraine and supporting their business projects. “There are 65 million Ukrainians around the world. And you are very needed by our country: your talents, your mental values. We really want you to return home. We also want those who have given up and plan to leave Ukraine to stay,” Zelenskyy explained the program’s purpose. According to him, the first stage would be introducing accessible loans for those who want to start or expand their own business.
In addition, the head of state promised Ukrainian citizenship to all repatriates. He repeatedly emphasized that he was appealing not only to seasonal guest workers. The president aimed to attract “those whom the Ukrainian land gave birth to in Europe, Asia, America.” In other words, he spoke of descendants of migrants who left Ukraine at the end of the 19th century.
Criticism
Ukraine does know examples of people returning with high-profile names. In 2002, Michel Tereshchenko visited the land of his ancestors; he was born in Paris in 1954. A year later the descendant of famous philanthropists settled in Kyiv and then engaged in flax growing in his native Hlukhiv. In 2015 Tereshchenko received a Ukrainian passport from President Poroshenko and won election as mayor of Hlukhiv. In 2018 Tereshchenko suddenly left his post, citing his inability to change the system.
Another example involves artist Ivan Marchuk. His story is even more dramatic. Marchuk was born on territory that at the time was annexed to Poland. He endured the Soviet period, during which he was monitored by the KGB. Then came emigration – life in Australia, Canada, the USA. Marchuk returned to Ukraine in 2001. His new-old homeland greeted Marchuk with open arms and even promised (via President Yushchenko) to build a museum for him. The museum was never built, and in 2020 the Commercial Court of Kyiv ordered recovery of over five million UAH from the company “Exhibition Center-Museum of Artist Ivan Marchuk” in favor of the Kyiv City Council for unpaid land rent. In one of his emotional interviews, Ivan Marchuk said he bitterly regretted his return.
As former MP Andriy Shkil, who has lived in France since 2013 due to a case against him for participation in the “Ukraine Without Kuchma” movement, told Glavcom, mass repatriation will only occur when “the standard of living, democracy, rule of law, and development of Ukrainian national culture are higher than all those measures in the country of residence.”
But let’s return to the program’s economic component. Earlier it was noted that the president promised accessible loans for repatriates. What specifically was meant?
“The rates are as follows: 5% for existing or new businesses that will create at least 2 jobs. 7% for new businesses or existing ones with revenue up to 25 million UAH that do not create new jobs, but if you hire a new employee the rate will be reduced by 0,5% per hire. And 9% for those already operating with revenue from 25 to 50 million who want to expand,” President Zelenskyy explained. Later his program even got its own website describing the president’s main theses.
According to current Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, under the loan program “5-7-9” cheap loans have been issued totaling 51,3 billion UAH. Is that a lot or a little? We asked Oleksiy Kushch quoted above. “In reality, no one benefited from ‘cheap’ loans in a way that would help both themselves and the state. A mechanism to compensate interest rates could have been an effective economic development tool, but the problem with the Ukrainian authorities is that they have good ideas and poor managers to implement them. The credit multiplier didn’t work, but why? Because 40% of the issued loans were used to refinance old debt. That is, someone had a loan at 15-20% per annum, these people took a ‘5-7-9’ loan and covered their debts. Who won in the end? Only the banking system, which is already swollen with excess profits,” Kushch is convinced.
The economist also explains why “cheap loans” won’t interest potential repatriates. He first divides them into three large groups.
“The ‘Return and Stay’ program demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of the impulses driving labor migration. Look: we currently have three groups of migrants. The largest group is those who go for seasonal work; these people are not entrepreneurs by their psycho-mental make-up. They don’t need loans; they need decent working conditions and wages; jobs need to be created for them. The second group is highly qualified specialists, about one to one and a half million among migrants. They have long lived in the West because they seek higher standards for their children: education, medicine, safety. For them it’s not about money but quality of life, so ‘cheap’ loans are again not what they need. The third group is business migrants, who register their businesses abroad and have residence there. Are Ukrainian loans interesting to them? I don’t think so, because they can go to any European bank and get a loan there at 1-2%. And get it quickly and easily, not like in Ukraine with its ‘5-7-9’,” Kushch notes.
As for the number of Ukrainian migrants currently abroad, the exact figure is unknown. According to Ella Libanova, director of the Institute of Demography and Social Studies, the estimate is 3-5 million citizens. There is no information about cases of their mass return (for loans or for other reasons).
Digitalization and a Silicon Valley in Kharkiv
By the official definition, the “state in a smartphone” is an “experimental project” (photo from open sources)
The team around President Zelenskyy has been talking about a digital state, digital transformation, a “state in a smartphone” in various forms since the start of his term. The practical result of these good intentions was the implementation of the “Diia” program.
What it’s about
By the official definition, a “state in a smartphone” is an “experimental project in the field of providing electronic administrative services; a system of online interaction between central executive authorities of Ukraine and other state information systems with each other and with natural and legal persons, based on automation and optimization of all state functions.”
And the “Diia” app mentioned above is a “mobile application, web portal, and brand of the ‘digital state’ developed by the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine. According to the program’s authors, with Diia you can register a business and FOP status online, pay taxes and submit declarations online, sign any documents, change your place of registration, and so on.”
Simply put, Zelenskyy’s digitalization is a ban on tons of paper certificates; it is a broken back of bureaucracy. And it’s only the beginning, the head of state asserts.
On 24 August 2021 the president promised that on Independence Day Ukraine would enter the paperless era during the forum “Ukraine 30. Digitalization.” “No papers for government bodies. No authority will be able to demand paper documents or certificates from Ukrainian citizens to provide state services. And we will do everything so that a ‘paperless state’ exists not only on paper,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Then more. The head of state made another sensational confession: Ukraine has already carried out a digital revolution, he said. “Previously, to obtain a number of permits you had to pay bribes. Now you only need to pay for the Internet. Previously it was ten offices. Now it is one site. Previously – 50 certificates standing in queues. Now – three or four clicks on a smartphone. Previously – weeks and months. Now 10 or 20 minutes to open an FOP or LLC online,” he said.
But that’s not the end. In the context of digitalization it’s worth recalling the president’s desire to make Kharkiv the “Silicon Valley” of Ukraine. Why Kharkiv? Because, Zelenskyy notes, it is a “student and scientific capital.” Therefore the city allegedly has the powder to make a breakthrough in high technology. And Kharkivites will need very little time. “I am convinced – in a few years the already attractive face of the Kharkiv region will be even smarter, more determined, and happier,” the president shared.
Criticism
We’ll leave the attractive face of the Kharkiv region aside for now. There is no doubt that in a few years the region will be fine. The question is whether the president actually managed to build a paperless state.
I don’t want to upset him, but bank operations (opening an account, applying for a loan) still require paper certificates in addition to the ID card (electronic passport), such as paperwork proving assignment of tax identification number, place of registration, etc. And when applying for work in a state structure you still have to fill out a lot of Soviet-style paper forms asking about closest relatives, etc., as Glavcom recently wrote.
And specifically regarding the Diia app, it has been criticized and ridiculed because passports “uploaded” to the program are not in fact official identity documents. The State Border Guard Service provided a special clarification that “Ukrainians cannot submit an e-passport and an e-passport for departure abroad through the Unified State Web Portal of Electronic Services ‘Diia’.” Digital analogs of paper documents were called an experiment, although originally it was presented differently. Still, now with an electronic passport you can verify age when buying cigarettes or alcohol, send a postal parcel, visit a library, or even buy a domestic ticket, the Cabinet explains.
In other words, the service is not completely useless. Nevertheless, “I have a number of questions about Diia,” says Bohdan Petrenko. “For example, why doesn’t my photo transfer to my driver’s license? And why does Diia send me a query like ‘if you got vaccinated, let us know so we don’t keep you in line’? But shouldn’t it be the other way around? Shouldn’t Diia inform me about vaccination rather than me inform Diia? After all, it consolidates many programs; otherwise what’s the point? So the impressions are rather ambiguous.”
If Petrenko’s impressions are ambiguous, Yevhen Magda’s are wholly negative. “I don’t want to use Diia and will avoid it to the end. Two weeks ago not only the president’s office and the SBU sites went down, but also the Information Protection Service – after that I don’t feel like using Diia at all. Mr. Fedorov’s thesis that the value of cybersecurity is exaggerated is wrong, and he, to put it mildly, is not in the right place. How will our partners trust us, how will they share information with us if the site of the relevant agency goes down from a hacker attack?” asks Yevhen Magda.
The Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov indeed made the above remark: “I think the role of cybersecurity is somewhat exaggerated. People talk a lot about it, but in fact few can name real cases of cyber threats,” he said in an interview with Left Bank.
Perhaps such an approach really undermines serious regard for Zelenskyy’s initiatives and the ministry he created. Moreover, “some projects exist only in the heads of presidential office representatives. I don’t see prospects for their implementation. But I do see a desire to pin the agenda to themselves. Whoever does that will be spared the need to fend off criticism from opponents. If Zelenskyy is criticized for land, for failed negotiations on Donbas or for something else, they will hide behind this agenda. The presidential administration has already been moved, now they create a presidential university or plant a billion trees. The main thing is to give people hope. Tomorrow there will be a new day and a new project, that is, new hope,” Bohdan Petrenko summarizes.
His own Las Vegas, Disneyland, Hollywood
“I would like to build Hollywood in Ukraine. I think it’s cool” (photo: president.gov.ua)
It seems the ruling team truly believes that “Ukraine is the homeland of elephants.” That’s why it mentally transfers cultural and entertainment clusters to our territory – whether their analogues will be built or not, one can dream.
What it’s about?
While still a presidential candidate, Volodymyr Zelenskyy told RBC-Ukraine about the possibility of starting a Ukrainian Las Vegas. The future leader mentioned this in response to a question about whether he opposed legalizing prostitution. It turned out he wasn’t opposed if society does not object. More than that: Zelenskyy did not oppose gambling (which, by the way, was officially brought out of the shadows in 2020). Prostitutes and casinos could ‘raise some city where no one comes,’ he said. It would be good for the city and for the state treasury – taxes would flow in, the president reasoned.
His thoughts about Hollywood and Disneyland were not motivated by such mercantile considerations. “I would like to build Hollywood in Ukraine. I think it’s cool,” he said. “Believe me, Ukraine is rich enough to have such a platform,” the president added. Zelenskyy also said he desired his own Disneyland, since not everyone can fly to the authentic park in the USA or its Parisian franchise. He shared this whole range of dreams in an interview with The New York Times.
Criticism
According to Yevhen Magda, the president’s concern for Ukrainian children who may never see Disneyland was prompted by “the writers of the 95-era Kvartal.” “They offer the president attractive information or figures that he beautifully announces, and then our officials in the best traditions set about building some unclear concept around it,” Magda says. Because Hollywood, Disneyland, and Las Vegas in Ukrainian form look too utopian.
So criticism of these projects mainly boils down to the president being out of touch with harsh and objective reality.
“Zelenskyy’s initiatives become resource-intensive and beneficial, if not to him personally, then to a significant part of his entourage. They allow creating a ‘wow-effect’ for part of society, as if showing how much he has done compared to his predecessors. But that’s not true. Roads were actively built under Groysman too; they just weren’t advertised on billboards. ‘Big Construction’ has its logic, but immediately several questions arise: what is the quality of such construction, who takes the cream off it, and with what money is this all done,” Magda concludes.
As for the so-called fantasy projects of the current president, Glavcom received its interpretation from Svitlana Chunikhina, vice president of the Association of Political Psychologists. The point is that Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to power “from the entertainment industry,” which determines “his vision of Ukraine’s future,” she says.
“On the one hand, it is a positive vision that Ukraine desperately lacks. On the other hand, Zelenskyy could afford to promote visions bordering on childish fantasies precisely because he lacked experience in building purely political projects. A collision with Ukrainian reality inevitably leads to lowered expectations. It’s not surprising that recently the president has become noticeably more restrained in his plans,” Chunikhina notes.
She adds: “Ukrainian political language really lacks words that would describe joie de vivre, optimism, hedonic pleasures, words that would create opportunities for implementing decisions aimed at improving quality of life rather than merely survival. Zelenskyy’s optimism is now being tested by a difficult reality. When he manages to produce a positive vision of the nation’s future in a more realistic mode, it will indicate that he is entering political maturity.”
In short, our president always acts from the best motives. He certainly does not wish harm to his compatriots. It’s just that delayed maturation spoils all his good intentions.
Natalia Lebid, published in Glavcom
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Хотів як краще, вийде як завжди? Що не так із прожектами президента Зеленського". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.
