REVIEW - Zelenskyy's Failed Promises As New Ukrainian President Enters 100th Day In Office

KIEV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th August, 2019) Over his first 100 days in office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has managed to consolidate power but so far failed to deliver most of the promises he made during his presidential campaign, experts told Sputnik.

While in office, Zelenskyy appointed his childhood friends and business partners to key positions in the government and outlined the vector of Ukrainian foreign policy for the European Union and NATO but so far made little progress in resolving the conflict in Donbas.

In the July general election, Zelenskyy's Servant of the People party won most of the seats in parliament and secured the power to create a one-party majority even without a coalition partner.

Zelenskyy did not set specific goals for the first 100 days of his work, however, according to his representative in the Ukrainian parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, Zelenskyy planned to reform the institution of the presidency, initiate a "state audit," as well as introduce draft laws on the judiciary and anti-corruption policies into parliament.

A fresh poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology showed that most Ukrainians (42.8 percent) expected Zelenskyy to reduce utility tariffs during his first 100 days as president. Over one-third of respondents (36.6 percent) hoped that Zelenskyy would submit bills to parliament that would lift the immunity of deputies, judges, and the president.

More than 30 percent of those polled said they expected Zelenskyy to open direct negotiations with Donetsk, Luhansk, and Moscow on a peaceful settlement and the cessation of hostilities in Donbas. Slightly fewer respondents expected investigations into the most high-profile corruption crimes. In addition, 17.6 percent of citizens hoped that the salaries of top officials would be reduced.

However, the expectations of Ukrainian citizens have so far remained unmet.

Zelenskyy started the first day of his presidency by appointing new people to key positions in the country. He appointed Andriy Bohdan, the former lawyer of the Ukrainian businessman, Ihor Kolomoyskyi, as the head of his administration. This prompted negative reactions in Ukrainian society, as Bohdan twice served as a government commissioner on anti-corruption policy while Viktor Yanukovych was president. Thus, Bohdan is subjected to the lustration law and cannot be a public servant until 2024.

The deputy head of the presidential administration, Ruslan Riaboshapka, said that Bohdan did not fall under the lustration law since the department was not a state power body.

However, Ukrainian Deputy Justice Minister Sergiy Petukhov was convinced otherwise and said that his ministry would include Bohdan in the lustration register.

Furthermore, on the very first day in office, Zelenskyy appointed Serhiy Shefir, his old friend and business partner, as his first assistant. On the second day, Zelenskyy appointed Ivan Bakanov, a childhood friend and partner in the Kvartal 95 studio � a television entertainment production company, � as the first deputy head of the national Security Service. Now, he is the acting head of the intelligence agency.

After almost two weeks as president, Zelenskyy expanded his administration team, although he had previously announced his intention to reduce it.

Within three months, he visited a number of regions and criticized the work of regional customs departments and law enforcement agencies. He demanded the resignation of some officials, but, so far, more than half of them continue to hold their posts.

Two weeks after becoming president, Zelenskyy paid his first international visit to Brussels. During the visit, the Ukrainian leader met with EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, European Council President Donald Tusk and several European officials.

Zelenskyy paid his second international visit to Turkey, where he met with his counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as with Bishop of the Greek Orthodox Church Bartholomew I of Constantinople.

After a month in office, Zelenskyy signed his first law. The document stipulated that employees who adopted a child should get a 56-day one-time paid leave (70 days for the adoption of two or more children). On the same day, the president canceled 161 decrees of his predecessors.

According to his spokeswoman, Iuliia Mendel, the decrees were canceled in order to begin the deregulation policy.

�During the first three months of his presidency, Zelenskyy resigned as the owner of several commercial companies. Under Ukrainian law, the president cannot be engaged in other paid activities or be a member of a governing body or a supervisory board of an enterprise with the goal of making a profit.

In early June, Zelenskyy reinstated the country's ex-president, Leonid Kuchma, in his capacity as Ukraine's representative at the talks of the Trilateral Contact Group on Donbas. The president said that Kiev had specific proposals and new solutions for Donbas.

The most recent ceasefire in Donbas came into force on July 21, but both sides still frequently report violations. After the shelling killed four Ukrainian servicemen, Zelenskyy held phone talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which he asked the Russian leader to "influence the other side." The Ukrainian president also insisted on meeting in the Normandy format (France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine).

The director of the Ukrainian Institute for Analysis and Management of Policy, Ruslan Bortnik, believes that Zelenskyy managed to reduce tensions in Donbas.

"This is a certain de-escalation of the dialogue regarding peace in Donbas. There has been a development in the separation of forces in Stanytsia Luhanska. There is a certain de-escalation. This is not peace yet, but we are witnessing some kind of truce," he noted.

Ukrainian political analyst Yelena Dyachenko also believes that Zelenskyy gives hope that the conflict in Donbas will end.

"Hope is appearing in the society that the conflict in Donbas will end and can be called his [Zelenskyy's] main achievement. There are only hopes so far, not big steps. But the very fact of negotiations with the Russian president suggests that sooner or later all parties will sit down at the negotiating table and agree to end this conflict and begin the integration of Donbas territories not controlled by Kiev into Ukraine," the expert said.

The head of Kiev-based analytical center Third Sector, Andrey Zolotarev, believes that Zelenskyy managed to reduce the confrontation in society during his 100-day presidency and this is his main success.

"First of all, the president was able to reduce the degree of confrontation in society. At least he, unlike his predecessor, is not speculating on flammable topics that split the people," Zolotarev noted.

Bortnik, in turn, named the peaceful transition of power as the president's main achievement.

"[Zelenskyy's] main success is a conditionally peaceful transfer of power. He managed to take the presidency, take control of a significant part of power, and ensure relative trustworthiness of the government and executive authorities," Bortnik said.

At the same time, Bortnik noted that the president had not been able to fulfill his campaign promises.

"The promised state audit has not begun yet, there is no work program for the president. The issue of tariffs or the blockade of Donbas, which can be solved with a stroke of the president's pen, has not been resolved. The president has not taken full control of the government. He did not win over the prosecutor general. There are no results in the fight against corruption, no one went to jail in these 100 days, although they promised to deliver results quickly enough," Bortnik added.

The other expert believes that Zelenskyy will be able to start fulfilling his promises after the new parliament starts its work.

"Zelenskyy failed to proceed with fulfilling his election promises. We will see this in September, after the new Verkhovna Rada starts working. So far, he has only managed to create a platform, a base for implementing what he promised," Zolotarev said.

The expert spoke highly of the president's activities.

"On the basis of sociology, which says that he still has very high credibility, I think his work can receive seven points on a ten-point scale. About a third of Ukrainian citizens are ready to wait a year or more for Zelenskyy's results," Zolotarev added.

In turn, Bortnik believes that "so far these 100 days can be called days of hope and lack of results."�