“Points of indestructibility” is just an excuse for Zelensky to attack Klitschko
The roots of the current political confrontation go back to 2019, writes Klymenko.
Based on the results of the inspection by representatives of the President's Office, it turned out that 20% of the Kyiv “Invincibility Points” were closed. At the same time, the authorities decided to turn everything into a public scandal, the roots of which go back to the long-standing confrontation between the OP and the mayor of Kyiv. We tell you what is happening on the political field of the capital and Ukraine in the conditions of war.
Non-working points in Kyiv
It all started with the fact that the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky personally in a video message dated November 25 said that local authorities did not work qualitatively everywhere in organizing such points, and in the capital only the points deployed on the basis of the State Emergency Service and at the railway station were actually normally provided.
“No one will forgive anyone for profanation with the Kyiv ‘Points of Invincibility’. Please be more serious. As well as lies in reports of various levels,” Zelensky said.
Subsequently, the head of the Servant of the People faction, David Arakhamia, inspected the Kyiv Points of Invincibility and announced the disappointing results of his inspection, in more detail about what we told in the material at the link.
The Mayor of Kyiv believes that the “Points of Invincibility” is deliberate politicization
According to the mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko, the topic around the “Points of Invincibility” is deliberately given a political coloring. Thus, he stated that more than 430 heating points are operating in the capital, and more than 100 such points are being prepared in case of an emergency.
“I do not want, especially in the current situation, to enter into political battles. This is silly. I have things to do. And I note that there is no need to manipulate! Because it looks strange: when yesterday I went to check the work of points, I meet people's deputies from the party in power. And they tell me in a private conversation that all the points they have visited are open and working. And then some incomprehensible photos are fasting. It looks, to put it mildly, ugly. Both for Ukrainians and for our foreign partners. Today, when everyone must work together, some political dances begin,” he wrote.
“Points of indestructibility.” A week to fix bugs
On the evening of Sunday, November 27, Arakhamia also touched on the political topic directly and stated that he did not intend to allow the authorities to be drawn into the political struggle on the topic of “Invincibility Points”.
“Either the city authorities will do this, or we will find those who are not indifferent to 3 million Kyivans. We are really happy with both options. (…) That's why I have a suggestion. In a week, the city authorities will correct the mistakes – and together with the head of the city we will go for an inspection. This will be the best proof that none of us is looking for speculations.” he wrote.
Thus, Klitschko found himself in an accountable position and is obliged to prove to the authorities the quality of his work, otherwise his work will once again be publicly recognized as ineffective, which inflicts a strong reputational blow on him as mayor.
The resumption of the political struggle
Klitschko traditionally had high support among the residents of the capital, moreover, he is a political ally of the fifth president, Petro Poroshenko, and a political opponent of Zelensky.
The confrontation between the team of President Zelensky and the mayor of Kyiv Klitschko began even after the formation of the OP in June 2019. At that time, the ex-head of the OP Andriy Bohdan submitted a document to the Cabinet of Ministers with the intention to share the powers of the mayor of Kyiv and the head of the Kyiv City State Administration – since Klitschko combined both positions from the end of June 2014 In September, the government of Alexei Goncharuk agreed on the dismissal of Klitschko, and in October of the same year Alexander Tkachenko submitted his electronic declaration as a candidate for the post of head of the Kyiv City State Administration – but then nothing came of it.
And after the removal of Bogdan from positions and the appointment of Andriy Yermak as the head of the OP, with Klitschko, through compromises (several appointments in favor of Bankova to the position of deputy mayor), temporarily found a common language. After the local elections, representatives of the Servant of the People took the positions of heads of commissions in the Kyiv City Council.
Attacks on Klitschko, periodically intensifying, have since come from all sides: he was summoned for interrogation in the case of fraud with land plots, law enforcement officers “accidentally” visited Klitschko's apartment, searches were repeatedly carried out in the capital, and protests were organized in parallel due to demolitions buildings in Kyiv, scandals unfolded around Klitschko's possible lobbying of the interests of developers, in particular, Vadim Stolar. Klitschko himself considered all this as a way to discredit his reputation and appoint another person as the head of the KSCA. Supporters of the mayor said that Zelensky was afraid of Klitschko as a real opponent in a possible presidential election. The authorities, however, stated that there were no complaints against the mayor – there were complaints about the problems of the city.
A new round of conflict between the OP and Klitschko flared up closer to the war – in January-February 2022. So, on January 20, 2022. The Kyiv City Council appealed to the central authorities with a demand to prevent the political persecution of Poroshenko, and a few days after that, two deputies of Klitschko, Nikolai Povoroznik and Pyotr Panteleev, were handed suspicions.
On January 24, the Cabinet of Ministers changed the procedure for appointing the heads of district state administrations in Kyiv: if earlier their candidatures were proposed by the head of the Kyiv City State Administration (Klitschko), now this has become the authority of the prime minister. And already on January 27, Zelensky dismissed the heads of the Darnitsa, Dnipro and Shevchenkiv regional state administrations, and appointed acting ones in their place. In response to this, Klitschko created “departments of districts” in the structure of the KSCA, which take on up to 90% of the powers of district state administrations.
With the start of a full-scale war, Zelensky appointed the head of the military-civilian administration in Kyiv, and Klitschko, without interfering in political scandals, was engaged in ensuring the life of the city – right up to the current story with the “Invincibility Points”.
According to unofficial information, now the authorities, apart from criticism, it does nothing to help the Kyiv authorities to equip these points.
Whether a new round of confrontation between the OP and the mayor of Kyiv means plans to hold elections in 2023, about which there are unofficial rumors, time will tell.
Recall that on November 1, Klitschko said that in case of emergencies in the capital, they were preparing to deploy about 1,000 points to warm people. And on November 24, the Kyiv City Military Administration announced that the first 500 such points had begun to be deployed in Kyiv, and they urged businesses to create their own heating points.
Addresses of all the “Invincibility Points” of Ukraine can be viewed on the website at the link.
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