With thousands of Ukrainians on the streets across Ukraine on 22 July to express their opposition to President Zelenskyy’s bill No.12414, which would have abolished the independence of the Ukrainian anti-corruption bodies, protesters once again have filled the streets of Kyiv to raise their voices against another law. As in the case of the planned anti-corruption measures, the Ukrainian authoritites including the president, the government and the Ukrainian parliament were forced to make concessions to the protesters, resulting in the cancellation of some new elements of the law aimed at tightening the system of punishment for misconduct during military service.
Following that on 4 September, the Ukrainian parliament passed bill No.13260, a protest took place in Kyiv’s Independence Square against this draft law that would have introduced harsher criminal liability for soldiers for disobedience. Protesters were chanting slogans such as ’You are punishing the wrong people’, ’Repression is not discipline’ and ’Service is not slavery’. They also demanded that the authorities stop harassing military personnel.
(The proposed changes would have deprived courts of the ability to take the circumstances of a case into account and impose more lenient punishments, which in effect would have turned a trial into a formal procedure without the consideration of individual factors.)
Having realised people’s disagreement with the draft law, the Ukrainian authorities backed down, once again.
Ukraine’s MoD said it had reached agreement with parliamentary committees to remove provisions from the draft law that would have increased the liability of soldiers in cases of insubordination. ’Discipline in the army should be based not on punishment but on fairness. The ministry consistently advocates that the soldiers defending our country today should be able to defend their rights.’, the Ministry said.
Meanwhile, President Zelenskyy has shared some details concerning the security guarantees the countries of the Coalition of the willing are ready to provide Ukraine. ’Alongside us stands all of free Europe, America, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and other partners around the world. Our result: 26 countries are now ready to guarantee Ukraine’s security through action,’ he said. Zelenskyy stressed that these security guarantees cover protection on land, in the air, at sea and in cyberspace and the provision of funding for the armed forces.
’The most important thing is a sufficiently strong Ukrainian army, so that Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty are fully guaranteed. And that means weapons for our army, long-term funding for the Ukrainian army. Many of these components have already been agreed upon with partners as a baseline.’, the Ukrainian president emphasised.
He said nothing about the Ukrainian soldiers, the heart and soul of Ukrainian defence. About those men and women whom he intented to punish with his new law.
It is hard not to notice that Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s choices in Ukraine are becoming increasingly limited, while discontent among Ukrainians is growing. In this situation, President of Ukraine is more and more reliant on his Western supporters who still stand by him and are still willing to believe the disinformation that Ukraine has made progress on the front lines this summer, while Russia is on the retreat.
If Zelenskyy really thinks so, then he is in big trouble, as his sense of reality has obviously been seriously damaged. Sadly, it is the Ukrainian military on the front lines and Ukraine’s Western supporters in the European Union who will eventually pay the price for this, given that, with a pledge of providing security guarantees to Ukraine, Europe has taken a big step toward war.
Through its mistaken actions, Europe de facto has stepped on a path that should have been avoided at all costs.
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