Page 6 - UKRRptJan22

One of the factors driving up wages is a labour shortage caused by the massive migration of workers to EU countries like Poland where wages are up to four times higher and those countries are actively recruiting Ukrainian workers to fill their own labour shortages.
On the political front the end of the year was dominated by Russia’s aggression, which moved some 100,000 troops and heavy armour to bases close to Ukraine’s border. Russian President Vladimir Putin is demanding a new security deal with the west and threatening military action against Ukraine if the West does not respond and start talks. However, in Kyiv itself tensions were low as there are no Russian troops actually on the border. “We are used to it,” the Defence Minister said.
More serious is Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s ongoing battle with the oligarchs. The president launched a campaign to curb the oligarchs influence with an oligarch speech in March that was followed by an oligarch law in the summer. However, the oligarchs are pushing back and Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man, was using his media assets to criticise Zelenskiy that has been hurting the president in the polls.
Zelenskiy has been using his oligarch campaign to further his political goals as he prepares for a presidential re-election campaign this year. Several of the oligarchs targeted by the law are also his political rivals. Notably oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who was the president’s sponsor in the 2018 elections, has not been targeted by the law, although a banking law preventing Kolomoisky from regaining control of PrivatBank was passed.
The outlook for Ukraine in 2022 will depend on the reform programme. Several successes have been scored and more are to come, but progress is slow. The banking sector clean up is more or less finished and the sector is back in profit and under prudential management by the NBU. After many years of inaction the privatisation programme has started and the number of assets being sold is growing fast.
But with elections looming Zelenskiy has been both taking much tighter control of the levers of power and leaning to much more popularist policies.
2.0 Politics
2.1 Only 4% of Russians believe Russia is behind the hostilities in
Donbas
A mere 4% of Russians believe that Russia is behind the hostilities in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donbas; half (50%) blame the US and Nato fro the undeclared war that has been raging for more seven years, a new survey by independent pollster the Levada Center found.
Ukraine has been fighting against Russia-backed separatists in the Donbas since 2014. Moscow denies participating in the conflict, despite overwhelming evidence that there both regular Russian troops on-the-ground and the separatists are being supplied and directed by Russian armed forces.
6 UKRAINE Country Report January 2022 www.intellinews.com