Petro Poroshenko, the President of Ukraine, on Thursday, September 20, during a speech in the Verkhovna Rada, said that during his term it was not possible to end the war, the fight against corruption did not give the expected results, and Ukrainians had not yet felt the improvement in quality of life. The live broadcast was made by 112 Ukraine.
“I would like to say frankly that most of the society is objectively unhappy: it was not possible to end the war and restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine. As a result of the aggression, 20% of the country's industrial potential is lost,” – the President said.
Also, the head of the Ukrainian state stressed that this had provoked a knock-on effect for the entire economy and entailed a deep social crisis.
“We survived and resumed growth. However, most Ukrainians had not yet felt an improvement in their well-being,” – Poroshenko said.
The President noted that the living standard is recovering slowly and unevenly – by regions and by social and age groups, and pensioners are especially unprotected.
“You and I created an anti-corruption infrastructure, we have invested a lot of financial resources of the taxpayers of Ukraine in some new bodies, but so far the coefficient of their usefulness has not satisfied me. And society is disappointed by the dynamics of anti-corruption struggle, people's claims are justified,” – the head of state said.
He also drew attention to the serious scale of emigration from Ukraine.
“Unfortunately, the authorities made miscalculations in the personnel policy, and bold experiments in this area proved to be ineffective. The pace of reforms is not at all the same as the speed that we projected at the start. The problems turned out to be deeper, the resistance is stronger, and the solutions are more difficult,” – the President said.
At the same time, Poroshenko said that in recent years, the Ukrainian government had committed many tactical mistakes, but was not mistaken in the strategy.
“Probably, in recent years, the authorities made many tactical mistakes. And for this personally I have a part of responsibility. But I know for sure that we did not make a mistake and did not sinned in matters of strategy!” – the President summed up.
According to him, the goal of the Ukrainian government is to make a strong and successful Ukraine an integral and indisputable part of Europe without any prospect of returning to the zone of Russian influence.
During the speech, Poroshenko called on the deputies to support the changes in the Constitution, registering a course for joining the NATO and the EU.
