Presence of distinguished representatives of the Cabinet of Ministers and the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine at the 5th Expert Forum, held on the last day of the first month of spring, clearly demonstrates the relevance of the touched upon theme: “Ukraine. Stress test”. The event's organizer was Gorshenin Institute. Relevant were also the questions offered to be discussed: How has Ukraine changed over the past year after the Revolution of Dignity, Russian annexation of the Crimea and the outbreak of war in the East? Can there be a peaceful resolving for the situation in the Donbas? Should Ukraine fight for the Donbas by military means? How effective is the world's support of Ukraine in its confrontation with Russia? And so on.
Both, the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine V. Nalyvaychenko, and the Minister of Internal Affairs A. Avakov had the opportunity to present their views on the current situation, which can be briefly summarized as follows: the situation in Ukraine is not easy, problems are not becoming fewer, but there is (and there will be) no alternative to current actions of the Ukrainian government and Ukrainian society. The society must continue consolidating, and make every effort to carry out reforms in Ukraine.
“We have a stratum of citizens living by “fervor” of the so-called anti-Maydan — pointed out V. Nalyvaychenko, — and the biggest challenge for security services is to resist the sabotage of those who last year fled Ukraine, and to neutralize Russian diversionists.” According to V. Nalyvaychenko, now it is very important to make the younger generation of Ukrainians get involved in responsible work, as well as to work hard with the population strengthening informational influence.
— Yes, today we have a war, but we must do something — responds to a question from the audience A. Avakov. — Will our people have enough strength and patience?
The Minister of Internal Affairs believes that Ukrainians today have the authorities they deserve, and if they dream of replacing the power, they must change themselves. If they want some kind of transformation, they should help the authorities in this aspect. And everyone has to do what one can.
Responding to the question about how Ukraine should live during the military conflict, A. Avakov expressed his belief that it is necessary to live within our framework.
— Russia attacked us and is ready to move on to Europe. Putin will go further if we have some illusions about his further steps, — said A. Avakov.
The present at the Forum Minister of Information Policy of Ukraine Yuri Stets drew the audience's attention to the fact that no President of the Ukrainian state in the past years was engaged in information policy in favor of Ukraine, attaching no importance to the question of the Ukrainian language, which can unite and consolidate the Ukrainian society.
Ukraine returns onto the map of Europe, underlined Yuriy Stets, and this is important, although difficult and expensive. “I do not believe that Russia can bring something positive to Ukraine, — pointed out Yuri Stets. — The West believes that Ukraine can confidently move to Europe. But we need, in particular, to develop a new security policy. We need strong specialists in information policy. While recently in Brussels, I was convinced, especially when communicating with MEPs. By the way, Ukrainian media did not mention this problem.”
According to the Minister of Information Policy, the continuation of the war is possible. Therefore the world should put pressure on Russia from all sides as the destroyer of the world order. But Russia is actively pursuing the desired, creating its own so-called platforms in Poland, the Baltic States, trying to bring European countries to its side. “Europe must realize that Russia is threatening it too. And if now Europe does not help Ukraine, soon it will have no less a problem than Ukraine has,” — said Yu. Stets.
It is interesting that Yu. Lutsenko did not agree with Stets: “I must clarify that the transfer of the war into Europe is an excessive foresight. Putin seeks to capture Ukraine to destroy the unity of the EU. Three to five European countries already speak in favor of Russia, and some of them have already expressed their willingness to negotiate with it.”
P. Auštrevičius — Member of the European Parliament, and K. Dyuguen Clément — an expert of the Institute for Advanced Forecasting and Security in Europe expressed their vision of the situation currently prevailing in Ukraine. The former, in particular, expressed confidence that Russia must be stopped at its borders, while Europe itself should lead a more aggressive policy towards Russia. The French citizen pointed out, inter alia, that, in her opinion, Russia is now trying to create one nation with one language. As for the EU, it must revise its strategy of Neighborhood Policy.
The so-called discussion panel “The War Time Economy” was no less interesting than the previous one. After all, ideas expressed there were sometimes absolutely opposite. It is clear, we cannot talk about any discussion, because those who spoke, were giving serious arguments and confirmations from their own experience. For example, it was difficult to object to General Director of JSC “Zaporizhstal” R. Shurma, when he was talking about the working conditions of his business in recent years — irregular supply of raw materials for the operation of the equipment, changes in tariffs for transportation of goods, financing of the enterprise, etc. The Ukrainian MP S. Taruta was also stressing on the practical side of the work of industry in the East of the country. However, he began his speech with a different question: the Constitutional reform. Now, he believes, it is the most important topic. Although he pointed out that, he so far sees no reforms as such.
Deputy Head of the PA D. Shymkiv disagreed with S. Taruta, focusing in his solid speech on the importance of the issue of job creation, enhance of self-employment of the population. By the way, I must say that he admitted the need to touch upon the issue of functioning of power structures that has recently been worrying the Ukrainian media.
— There are no disputes in the power structures. It is all the Kremlin's fudge. Today, we are attracting billions of dollars in foreign investments, successfully saving on tendering, like for example, on products for the Ministry of Defence.
Before proceeding to the coverage of problems of the energy security of Ukraine, we should note that at the forum there had been created surprisingly favorable conditions for work of professionals and the invited. Almost all of those who came to the event, in particular, Ministers, Deputy Ministers and MPs, scrupulously sought to answer all the questions that were asked. People's Deputy S. Taruta was quite specific in answering the author's of these lines question at the prospects of the industry of the Donetsk region. For which I am grateful to him.
O. Makhno, Independent Analytical Center for Geopolitical Studies “Borysfen Intel”
