Page 9 - UKRRptJun19

popularity, particularly among his electoral base in the Russophile southeasten regions. In our view, this makes the most sense politically for Zelenskiy, which is why we believe there are even odds (at least 50/50 likelihood) that he will choose this path.
The second option is to follow President Poroshenko’s foreign policy path of relying on Western sanctions to bring about Russia’s capitulation eventually, while continuing to wage war in Donbas. If Zelenskiy chooses this path, he risks quickly losing the support of his electorate, not in the southeast but throughout Ukraine. Moreover, he can’t win over the electorate of western Ukrainians, who don’t trust Zelenskiy enough to lend him support for the October parliamentary elections.
In order to succeed on this path, Zelenskiy will need to select a key issue that unites Ukrainians, like fighting corruption or judicial reform, and be successful enough that they’re willing to overlook their concerns among high gas prices and ongoing warfare. It’s possible he will have success. It’s also possible he will attempt this and eventual capitulate to Putin if this path becomes too difficult to accomplish results.
2.1 Poroshenko makes last minute appointments before leaving office
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko continued to make appointments and dismissals of key officials in his last weeks in office. He signed a May 7 decree appointing 75 judges to the Supreme Court of Ukraine, including 25 judges to the Appellate Administrative Court, 15 judges to the Cassation Commercial Court, 13 judges to the Cassation Criminal Court and 22 judges to the Cassation Civil Court. In the appointment ceremony that day, Poroshenko made a veiled warning to President-elect Zelenskiy not to reverse his decisions. “I hope that the next president and his team respect the decision for an independent and just court, which is fixed in the Constitution,” he said. Zelenskiy will be inaugurated this month.
About 15 of the 75 appointments are questionable, in the assessment of the DEJURE Foundation, a Western-sponsored NGO committed to judicial reforms in Ukraine. Removing questionable appointments is possible only by means of approving a special law that will allow for conducting another review of these judges, the foundation’s experts said. Among the questionable appointments are Judge Serhiy Mohyl, who illegally privatized and sold real estate intended for office purposes, the experts said. Another appointment, Judge Maksym Titov, issued illegal rulings against EuroMaidan protestors and delayed court cases against those who persecuted the protestors. He also closed at least 20 cases against drunk drivers in the last two years, the experts said.
The same day on May 7, Poroshenko signed a decree dismissing the commander of the National Guard, Yuriy Allerov, who was appointed in December 2015. He appointed an acting head, Mykola Balan, with the same decree. Recall, the prior day the president appointed a new commander of the Joint Forces Operation.
On May 7, the president signed a decree appointing Yuriy Artemenko to the National Communications and Information Monitoring Commission after dismissing him as the head of the National Radio and Television Broadcasting
9 UKRAINE Country Report June 2019 www.intellinews.com