Page 10 - UKRRptApr21

“The judiciary’s susceptibility to political pressure, corruption, and bribery weakens public confidence in the courts,” the report says, explaining the decline in Ukraine’s judicial effectiveness.
Heritage also ranked Ukrainian government integrity poorly because of high corruption rates, and attributed the dip in market freedom to corruption within state-owned enterprises and “tension with Russia [that] continues to undercut more dynamic investment flows.”
On the other hand, Ukraine’s government size score leapt considerably in the 2021 Index, as the individual income tax rate currently sits at 20% and the highest corporate tax rate is 18%. Heritage also found that Ukraine’s government spending and fiscal health have improved. In terms of regulatory efficiency, Heritage looked kindly on the recently streamlined construction permit process in Kyiv and noted that labor force participation rose in 2019.
Though Heritage noted that Ukraine’s overall ranking is below the world and regional averages, it’s economic freedom score has been rising continuously since 2017. To continue this upward trend, Heritage recommended that Ukraine improve its investment code and tackle institutional reforms that enhance the rule of law.
2.5 Politics - misc
Resistance to vaccinations against the coronavirus is high and growing in Ukraine, the AP reports in an article headlined: “Wide resistance to vaccines plagues Ukraine’s COVID-19 fight.” The portion of poll respondents who do not want to get vaccinated rose from 40% in February to 60% in March 2021, according to polls of 1,200 Ukrainians conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. In the first half of 2019, resistance to measles vaccinations lead to 5,000 cases in Kyiv and 50,000 nationwide.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy created a new law enforcement agency that will focus on economic crimes and removes this power from the notoriously corrupt Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), as the president’s crackdown on oligarchs gathers a little more momentum. Zelenskiy signed into existence Ukraine’s Bureau of Economic Security (BEB), the Presidential press office announced on March 22. "The main function of the Bureau of Economic Security will be analytical work, not law enforcement. The Bureau will analyze the beneficiaries of financial transactions and determine if there is a violation of the law in the circulation of funds of certain business or government structures,” a government spokesperson said as cited by UBN.
Selling Ukrainian land to foreigners is against Ukraine’s national security interests, “Fatherland” party chief and iconic opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko said in a press conference commending the draft law on a land market. "Ukraine will not make a profit from its land, it will losemns of jobs, it will not be able to collect agricultural raw materials and process it into finished food products, it will be deprived of hundreds of billions of euros in income," the people's deputy stressed.
The Health Ministry reported that 40% of medical workers say they do not want to be vaccinated. In the Donetsk village of Selydove, a visiting AP
10 UKRAINE Country Report April 2021 www.intellinews.com