10 promises Poroshenko’s didn’t keep

1. ATO. “The Anti-Terrorist Operation cannot and will not last 2-3 months. It has to and will last hours… We will see the efficiency of the anti-terrorist operation very soon,” Poroshenko stated at a briefing on May 28, several days after his victory at the presidential elections. However, the anti-terrorist operation has lasted 8 months. Yesterday, when speaking in the Cabinet of Ministers, Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak emphasized that ATO troops should “prepare for combat.” “We are relocating the Armed Forces, ready at our capacities to react to unpredicted actions of armed formations on the territories we don’t control,” reported the Defense Minister. 1052 Ukrainian servicemen died throughout the ATO in the conflict, NSDC speaker Andriy Lysenko told the press on November 11. Also, according to him, over 400 people are missing in action, 399 are being held hostage, another 4079 were wounded. 2. Money to the army. “I promised to say at every meeting I have that we are able to provide for the army. This will be my first priority. There will be no summons to the front in the army. There will be volunteers. They will receive a thousand Hryvnia per day. And their lives and health will be ensured at one million Hryvnia,” candidate Poroshenko declared at one of his last electoral meetings. However, as deputy Minister of Defense said in July, the head of the Ministry apparatus Petr Mekhed, “taking into account the current normative base and the amendments to the laws of Ukraine, the payments to servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces who are involved in the anti-terrorist operation, have increased twofold compared to other servicemen and constitute, depending on their rank, 5700 UAH and over for the entire month.” The monetary provision of the private personnel of the contract army involved in the ATO constitutes between 5700 and 8455 Hryvnia. Sergeants and officers of the contract army receive between 6780 and 12477 UAH. The higher officers receive between 9360 ad 16710 UAH. 3. Donbas. “We will not leave you,” Poroshenko told the citizens of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts in his inauguration speech. But Donbas will be receiving no social payments starting December 1 of the current year. The Cabinet Ministers passed the according order, which makes it possible not to pay pensioners and state workers on the terrorist-controlled territories. “We have to understand that the territories which are outside of the government’s control are simply dangerous. And we are concerned for our citizens and we offer them to leave. We will pay them so they can pay for their hosing, and provide all social dues,” promised Liudmyla Denysova, Minister of Social Policies of Ukraine. Which is another testament to populism, as there has been no functioning program for migrants, and there won’t be. The fate of the people was entrusted to volunteers who constantly solve the refugees’ problems. Experts already caution that this decision of the Cabinet of Ministers will de facto lead to total humanitarian catastrophe in the region: the elderly who cannot leave will remain without any means of survival and are practically doomed to die. 4. ROSHEN. “As to my business, immediately after this (the inauguration – ed.), a contract will be signed with an investment company in regards to seeking buyers,” stated Poroshenko after the elections. However, five months have gone by, and the company has not been sold yet. The head of state himself claimed he signed a contract with Rothschild to seek buyers for his assets. It is notable that in June The Closed Non-Diversified Corporate Investment Fund Prime Assetcapital received permission from the anti-monopoly committee to buy the assets of the Kyiv Factory of Experimental Construction. According to the Ukrainian State Registry, the President remains the sole owner of the Investment Fund, and it is headed by his father, Olexiy Poroshenko. 5. Elections. In his electoral campaign this spring the future head of state promised he would make “every effort within the frame of my constitutional powers for the early parliamentary elections to happen by the end of 2014 exclusively based on proportion and open lists.” The parliamentary elections of October 26 were held using the old, proportion-majority system. The Parliament failed to pass the necessary amendments, and the conflict between single-mandate candidates in several districts became grounds for numerous scandals and falsifications. The CEC is unable to announce the results in districts number 38 and 68 still: a recalculation of votes has been appointed by the court. 6. Mercenaries. “They are just murderers, simple bandits and terrorists. This is the thing. And if you expect that I will seek support from these people – never! Under any circumstances. Not a single civilized country in the world cooperates with terrorists,” this is what the current President said back when he was a candidate, declaring he would never resort to meeting with the ‘DNR’ and ‘LNR’ terrorists. The first meeting involving pro-Russian mercenaries was held on June 27 in Donetsk. Ukraine was represented by its second President, Leonid Kuchma. “The state was behind him, the second President represented Ukraine. He has a mandate from the government of the country,” representative of the Ukrainian MFA Olexiy Makiyiv explained his participation back then. On September 5 in Minsk, after the meeting between Russia, Ukraine and the mercenaries, the so-called Minsk Accords were signed. Poroshenko will call them the basis of his peace plan, and two months later, on November 4, he will admit with bitterness: “Other participants of the Minsk Accords, besides Ukraine and the OSCE, do not comply with the obligations they took on.” 7. Decentralization. “The project of amendments to the Constitution prescribes the key element of the peace plan – decentralization of government… The responsibilities and development of the regions (will be given) to the territorial communities and the local councils, which will be elected with new powers, which will allow to form executive committees,” stated President Poroshenko at the NSDC meeting on June 16. He proposed the amendments to the Rada, and sent them to the Venetian Committee. However, no real steps for the decentralization of power were made since then, and the members of the parliamentary group admitted to Segodnya that there practically had been no ready project of the Constitution. The Rada will only be able to return to the issue of passing it in 2015-2016. 8. Opposition. “As the foremost (project – ed.), I will propose to the Verkhovna Rada the bill on parliamentary opposition,” stated the future Ukrainian leader in his electoral program. However, nothing similar to this appeared in the Verkhovna Rada’s base of bills. The President’s intent (as well as the abolition of the imperative mandate) was reflected the Constitution amendment project, which failed to pass as well. 9. Maidan. The main task of the new Prosecutor General of Ukraine Vitaly Yarema is finishing the investigation of the shootings of civilians in February on Maidan. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said this at a meeting with the representatives of public unions and Maidan activists in mid-June. “The Ukrainian government should never again shoot at Ukrainian people. We have to create the first precedent. Nothing will stop us. We beat Yanukovych. We will beat the bandits. We will build a new country, for the sake of which the people went to maidan,” the President said back then. Since then, there have been no serious breakthroughs in the Maidan shooting case. “I am not satisfied with this speed of investigation,” the President said in August. In the beginning of October, one of the main suspects – Berkut Major Dmytro Sadovnyk fled house arrest. The MIA does not know of his whereabouts. According to the media, he may be in Russia-occupied Crimea. 10. Non-visa regime. “We finished the first stage of the non-visa regime and we will soon finish the second one, so that starting January 1, 2015, Ukrainian citizens have the possibility to travel to Europe without visas,” Poroshenko said in his address to Ukraine on June 7. However, the EU is still quite skeptical in regard to this promise. There is a technical possibility as of today that Ukraine will achieve non-visa regime with the European Union in the first half of 2015, however, it is impossible to achieve this goal in practice, European Pravda recently reported citing its sources in the EU diplomatic corps. “There is a technical possibility that by May the EU Commission might publish a positive report (on the work of the monitoring mission which examines the issue of abolishing visas for Ukrainians – ed.), and in June the EU Council will confirm the abolition of visas. But it is very improbable in practice. So far EU member countries have some fears (in regards to combatting crime in Ukraine – ed.). I advise you to not count on such a swift abolition of visas,” the source stated.