Over the past two weeks, President Volodymyr Zelensky has been touring the country and lashing out at local officials ahead of the July 21 snap parliamentary election.
Zelensky’s blunt and harsh treatment of officials is viewed as a popular pre-election move intended to gain him more votes from an electorate angry with the corrupt, out-of-touch bureaucrats.
In some cases, Zelensky’s interactions with local officials had a comic tinge, resembling the comedy show that he used to run.
Zelensky has visited Odesa, Dnipro, Donetsk Oblast, Lviv, Uzhhorod, Chornobyl and Boryspil in Kyiv Oblast, as well as his hometown of Kryvy Rih in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
Firing in Odesa
Zelensky’s visit to Odesa on July 13 focused on smuggling and problems at the Odesa seaport. A video of the visit has gone viral on YouTube, gaining 1.1 million views.
Zelensky said that he and Oleksandr Vlasov, acting head of the State Fiscal Service and former head of the Odesa customs office, had agreed that Vlasov would fire several Odesa customs officials who are allegedly involved in smuggling. However, instead of being fired, the officials in question simply went on vacation, Zelensky added.
When questioned about this by Zelensky, Vlasov said that two of the several officials had taken a vacation due to “the health of close relatives.”
“Do you believe I’m an idiot?” Zelensky said. “Do you believe we’re all idiots?”
Later Zelensky asked Vlasov to submit his resignation, which Vlasov did on July 14.
Vlasov and Volodymyr Perederiy, the acting head of the Odesa customs office, argued that it was difficult to fire the controversial officials because, under the law, they must start an internal probe against them, which could take up to two months.
However, Vlasov said that he would persuade the officials to resign by July 15. Perederiy added that the best way to “lose” the officials would be through a restructuring of their office.
No contraband?
Perederiy also claimed that “there had been no contraband schemes at the Odesa customs office” since he took over on May 15.
“They’re just afraid of us,” Zelensky quipped. “They can’t figure it out and can’t find someone on our team to whom they would give bribes. That’s why (the contraband) has been halted.”
Oleksiy Honcharuk, a deputy chief of staff for Zelensky, said that losses from smuggling at the Odesa port were estimated at $1 million per day.
Viktor Berestenko, head of the Association of International Freight Forwarders, also argued that smuggling schemes have continued operating at Odesa customs.
He accused Vlasov of sabotaging efforts to fight smuggling and submitted a file of documents on alleged violations at the Odesa customs office to Ivan Bakanov, the recently-appointed acting head of the Security Service of Ukraine. Vlasov denied the accusations.
“Vlasov is interested not in solving the problems but in keeping the schemes,” Berestenko said.
Odesa port
Honcharuk publicly questioned why the Odesa seaport’s traffic had fallen by 15 percent over the past three years, while Zelensky lambasted port officials for receiving higher wages despite the port’s falling revenue.
Zelensky also took issue with Igor Tkachuk, head of the Odesa Seaport Administration.
“Where is Tkachuk?” Zelensky asked.
Viktor Voitko, head of the Odesa Commercial Seaport, responded that Tkachuk was on vacation. The Odesa Commercial Seaport is a state-owned stevedore company separate from the Odesa Seaport Administration.
“We have information that Tkachuk has left Odesa because he found out we would be here,” Zelensky continued.
“It’s correct,” Voitko responded.
He added that Tkachuk had been delayed because he had been trying to get through customs for eight hours.
“Are you serious?” Zelensky quipped.
“This sounds like an Odesa anecdote: the head of the Odesa port can’t get through customs for eight hours,” Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Andriy Bohdan joked.
EuroTerminal
Zelensky and his team also criticized local officials for failing to remove the effective monopoly of EuroTerminal, a private logistics complex, on processing container shipments at the Odesa seaport. Due to a lack of bypasses, most containers have to go through EuroTerminal, where they have to wait for many hours, delaying the seaport’s operations.
The Anti-Monopoly Committee has required EuroTerminal not to collect money for vehicles that pass through it and do not use its logistics services. However, EuroTerminal has not complied with the ruling, arguing that it needs the funds to finance its infrastructure expenses.
Zelensky asked Odesa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov to allocate land for a bypass around EuroTerminal to allow vehicles to go to the Odesa seaport free of charge. Trukhanov responded that he would try to resolve the issue.
EuroTerminal was built under then-President Viktor Yanukovych in 2011, and Yanukovych and his allies were suspected of participating in the scheme, although they denied this. EuroTerminal’s owner, Pavel Lisitsin, used to be a business partner of Leonid Minin, Oleksandr Angert and Oleksandr Zhukov.
Angert, Zhukov and their associates — Trukhanov and Vladimir Galanternik — have been accused of spearheading corruption in Odesa, and, according to an Italian police dossier, were members of a mafia gang in the 1990s. They deny all accusations of wrongdoing. EuroTerminal has denied accusations that it is linked to Angert and his allies.
Other cities
Zelensky’s visits to other cities featured similar rhetoric.
During a visit to Boryspil on July 10, he argued with Yaroslav Hodunok, secretary of the city council, about the dire state of a local hospital. Later Zelensky read a message from his phone, citing a report that Hodunok had allegedly been convicted of robbery.
“Is this true? Is this you? Get out of here, you, a bandit!” Zelensky shouted at him.
During a visit to Dnipro on July 12, Zelensky challenged Dnipro mayor Borys Filatov to finish repairing the central bridge, which was closed in 2017.
“Let’s make an honest bet. If the bridge isn’t finished before September 14, you’ll step down from your post,” he said.
