Volodymyr Zelensky stated in December 2022 that “aid to Ukraine is an investment in democracy”. The president did it in Washington, in front of a joint session of the United States Congress. In September, again in the American capital, he requested to speak to the parliamentarians for the second time, but the president of the House of Representatives did not allow him and the refusal remained three months later, in December, when he returned to the White House in a desperate bid to get Congress to pass a new aid package for Ukraine. One year of war had been enough for democracy to no longer be an infallible argument and aid remains blocked in the Capitol.
The war between Russia and Ukraine has often been described as a war between democracy and authoritarianism. As they contain the advance of the Russian army, Ukrainian forces are defending Eastern Europe, happily anchored in NATO and the European Union.
Vladimir Putin probably would not have needed to invade Ukraine if ten years ago the democratic revolution on the Maidan had failed. Today, Ukraine would be a satellite of Russia, as is Belarus. But it has resisted and is on its way to joining NATO and the EU.
The price of this resistance is enormous, especially in human lives, but also in rights and freedoms. Democracy is suspended. There are no elections of any kind. The presidential elections should be held in March and Zelenski, as he stated when he was elected in 2019, would not run.
War prevents democracy. The media has lost its plurality almost entirely. An election campaign, as Zelenski has acknowledged, would divide a country that needs unity. Most citizens would not be able to vote. Between four and six million Ukrainians live in occupied zones, another million are in Russia and four in EU countries. A third of the population serves or is related to the armed forces, which is why they cannot have political affiliation. The campaign is unviable. The rallies would be an easy target for Russian artillery and are prohibited. Martial law prevents any kind of gathering.
Parliament resumed activity a year ago. Zelenskiy’s party holds 254 of the 450 seats and has jobs. The process of convergence with the EU requires the approval of hundreds of laws. In December, it was voted to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes, especially to relieve the post-traumatic stress of the military. Same-sex marriage law, however, is stalled. It demands a modification of the Constitution for which there is no consensus. Martial law gives wide powers to Zelenski, who rules by decree. There is no time to process public contracts, to complete the bureaucratic and political journey that any decision-making in a normal democracy requires. Ukrainian is not.
Mayors have lost much of their power. In many municipalities they have been replaced by military administrators. Pro-Russian parties are outlawed. The population accepts it because there is no other choice. The only thing it asks for is management. Destroyed roads, railways, bridges and power plants need to be repaired, and to do so with the certainty that they will be bombed again. Aid must be channeled to people who have lost their homes. Unemployment is very high among the displaced.
War moves a lot of money and money encourages corruption. Ukraine is the second most corrupt country in the world, according to the organization Transparency International. The first is Russia.
Zelenski fights on this second front with uneven success. The Minister of Defense had to resign because the army was buying uniforms and food at exorbitant prices.
After the war, corruption is the issue that most worries Ukrainians, despite the fact that the oligarchs have lost much of their power. Now they cannot finance political parties or bid for public goods that are privatized. Most are on a public list. Politicians are also on a list that includes their income and assets.
The Ministry of Digital Transformation has launched platforms such as Prozorro, for public procurement, or Diia, in which the citizen can do all kinds of procedures, from registering a car to a birth, paying a tax or obtaining a passport digital, increase efficiency and reduce corruption.
“The more human intervention in the administration is reduced, the more the possibilities of corruption are also reduced,” acknowledge George Ingram and Priya Vora, researchers at the Brookings Institute in Washington. Although they admit that it will take at least a decade to transform the administration, they say that the process is unstoppable: “Even in the hardest times, the Government’s action and the resistance of the population are extraordinary”.
The European Union is a beacon, a target that encourages reforms. The police, before the war violent and very corrupt, today are much more civil. Society – which has created such important movements as the feminist Femen – is today more open and tolerant, despite the war.
Ukraine resists thanks to the hundreds of thousands of citizens who volunteered during the first days of the Russian invasion. Only the wounded have been discharged. For the rest there is no limit as long as they have to serve. The General Staff still needs more men, half a million more, but Zelenski is reluctant to order the recruitment. He is afraid that there will be protests, as there have already been, although they have been testimonial, in favor of a limit to combat time.
The great paradox of these two years of war is not so much the great difficulties in advancing democracy, but that in order to defend it, Ukrainians have lost many of their benefits. Defending freedom, as they have been able to verify, requires giving it up.
