Ze's Covid Clowns

Pandemic politics in Ukraine

(illustration by Oleh Smal)

It’s too bad western journalists who write about Ukraine have difficulty understanding Russian, much less Ukrainian. That ability might enable them to understand, at least, why the president and his mono-majority’s MPs are increasingly regarded as self-serving creeps. The crisis has so far offered a convenient pretext for President Volodymyr Zelensky to consolidate power, but the act is already wearing thin.

Zelensky and his his Servant of the People faction in parliament have so far failed to assist healthcare workers who are battling the coronavirus epidemic. They are only interested in ‘political dividends,’ according to critics in parliament.

"The bill on medical insurance, co-authored by former President Petro Poroshenko, is straightforward. If a doctor gets sick, he will receive about UAH 200,000 from this insurance. If, God forbid, the healthcare worker dies because of COVID-19, then his or her family will receive about UAH 500,000," co-Chairman…