The European Union is studying ways to help bolster the economy in strife-torn eastern Ukraine, the EU’s top diplomat said Monday, amid tensions with Russia over a naval confrontation in the Black Sea last month.
Ukraine has been seeking help from its international partners at the EU and NATO since Russian border guards fired on three Ukrainian navy vessels in the Black Sea on Nov. 25. The crews were captured and the ships seized.
But the 28-nation bloc is unlikely to impose any fresh sanctions on Russia over its actions in the annexed Crimea region and the Sea of Azov, which is an important part of Ukraine’s economy.
The European Union is likely not in shape to further shoot itself by imposing further sanctions upon Russia. As much as sanctions go, to Russia this will be a temporary nuisance that will be alleviated in short to medium term, depending on how well the Russian state reacts to circumstances. I would say medium term because I have no confidence in the Russian leadership. Removing standing sanctions would mean an admission of failure by Brussels but sanctions so far have not done much to return lost territories back to Ukraine, so they are objectively a failure without the EU admitting to it.
Another failure that reflects badly upon the EU is Ukraine herself. Ukraine’s economic failure is something the EU must deal with, or it will be a constant source of ridicule from opponents and adversaries. Can the EU come up with a plan for Eastern Ukraine?
I have not touched the religious topic on this blog yet. I was waiting for some interesting news, and this perhaps is it. Censor.net reports…
Patriarch Filaret awarded an order to the former deputy director of CIA Devine for [his] support for Ukrainian independence and the formation of the Local Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
His Holiness Patriarch of Kiev and All Rus-Ukraine, Filaret has met with the former deputy director of the CIA Jack Devine.
During their meeting, Jack Devine expressed his sincere delight at the level of support for the idea of Ukraine receiving a Tomos of Autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
He also remarked on the exceptional role of the Kievan Patriarch Filaret in his almost 30 years struggle for the formation of a Local Ukrainian Orthodox Church that is independent from Russia, and commended Filaret for defending the rights of Christians in front of the atheistic Soviet government.
Patriarch Filaret thanked Jack Devine for the help United States provides to Ukraine regarding the matters of Ukrainian independence and the formation of a Local Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Following the presentation of the President of the Council of the “Ukraine the 21st Century” Fund, Bohdan Hubsky and a member of the Council of the Fund, Pavlo Yaroshenko, the Head of the Kiev Patriarchate awarded Jack Devine with the order of St. Andrew the First Called.
This one comes from Deutsche Welle, a propaganda arm of the Federative Republic of Germany, specifically its Ukrainian language office…
The price of electricity for Ukrainians has risen by 300% in recent years (!). This way, Ukrainian “heat” is truly the most expensive in the world.
Basically, ordinary Ukrainians, whose salaries and pensions are already meagre, are forced to spend enormous sums from these minuscule gains of theirs on necessities that in Ukraine aren’t exactly cheap.
The result of the so called “Revolution of Dignity” has been poverty and war…
Five years have passed since protests gripped Ukraine, which led to the fall of the Yanukovych government and Ukraine’s firm orientation towards the West. I think that half a decade allows us to speak of a complete failure of the ideals of the Euromaidan, also called “Revolution of Dignity.” The revolution did not achieve dignity for the Ukrainian people, and arguably Ukraine at present is further from Europe than it has been when Yanukovych rejected the Association Agreement with the EU.
Ukrainians are one most miserable on the European continent, Ukraine is the poorest country in Europe. And as of today, almost 5 years into the Association Agreement, Ukraine is still not a candidate for membership in the EU, and it is highly unlikely Ukraine will become one within the next decade. The destiny of Ukraine is to be a grey zone between the EU and Russia. At loggerheads with the latter, and in an unequal relationship with the former.
Ukraine will continue to export goods with low added value, and resources such as grain, and timber. Such a country will not need the current level of population. No, Ukrainians will not die out but the question remains how many planters of buckwheat does the country need? And this situation shall continue until a political force in Ukraine emerges which returns back to a sensible policy towards Russia.
This opinion was expressed by the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, Lamberto Zannier in an interview with RIA Novosti.
He said that he respects the aims of the Ukrainian government to increase the role of the Ukrainian language as the language of state. However, Ukraine should remain a space with diverse nationalities and diverse languages, which they should be able to use. Ukraine has in fact vowed to protect languages of minorities and regional languages in international treaties.
Lamberto of course thinks within the discourse of those international treaties, and probably sees the practice in his home country Italy as an example to follow. In Northern Italy, there are areas that have French speakers, German speakers, Slovene speakers, which get protection and rights on a local level. Likewise, regional Romance languages like Sicilian and Venetian are being protected, and developed. I don’t think he fully comprehends the desires of forces within Ukraine to conduct a policy that was last seen in Italy under Il Duce.
“European Values” is a Czech think tank, financed among others by George Soros, which aims to promote “European values”, which they allege are under attack by Russian propaganda. I wrote about it on this blog before…
Jakub Janda is the CEO of the “European Values” think tank, and he did gay porn. His Czech language Wikipedia entry literally says nothing else about him. The other information is, Jakub Janda comes from České Budějovice, which coincidently is where I live, and that he studied in Prague’s Charles University. He was forced to quit university due to accusations of plagiarism.
A compatriot classmate of mine in London told me a story about his cousin from South Bohemia, who did gay porn to pay rent in Prague. It specifically involved masturbating in front of a camera, which is what Janda has done. My classmate also allegedly has homosexual proclivities, and he owes my brother money. But that’s off topic…
Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against provincial boys doing gay porn to make it in the city. But he is a public face of Russophobia now, at a think tank called “European Values”, and I cannot help but find this funny.
The sailors, who were arrested near Crimea turned out to be “stars” of the Ukrainian internet.
Among the Ukrainian military men arrested in the Kerch strait was the commander of the Ukrainian armoured speedboat “Berdyansk”, Roman Mokryak, who earlier promised on air in Ukrainian media to destroy Russian ships with the help of the “Wolfpack” tactic. (somebody likes the German navy here)
According to a Crimean blogger, Aleksandr Talipov, it turns out the commanders of arrested ships were Bohdan Nebylitsa and Roman Mokryak (funny surname, fitting for a sailor, means: “Wet one”). According to him, they were “stars” of Ukrainian media and the Ukrainian segment of the internet.
“The commander of the small armoured gunboat “Nikopol” is Bohdan Nebylitsa. Do you remember the students of the Nakhimov academy, who sang the Ukrainian anthem [in defiance of the Russian flag] (see below)? Bohdan is one of them.”
He added that Nebylitsa underwent training in USA, after which he was appointed a commander on “Nikopol”
Mokryak really was one of those that explained in detail how the Ukrainian navy will sink Russian ships.
“When the “Wolfpack” will attack, the Russian ship will be unable to aim at six, five, or even four targets simultaneously. And that means that at least one these armoured “wolflings” will hit the enemy. So now we will see who is better.”
Following an altercation between Ukrainian navy and the FSB coast guard (seen in the video below), caused by Ukrainian vessels crossing into Russian territorial waters, which led to the arrest of about 30 Ukrainian crewmen, and 3 Ukrainian vessels, (my numbers are likely wrong here) Poroshenko convened the National Security Council (NSC), which recommended to the parliament to vote on a 2 month martial law today, which the parliament is likely to do because they rubber stamp anything that comes from the Presidential Administration or the NSC.
Let me get this straight, the so called “Donbass Cauldrons” of 2014-2015, where thousands of Ukrainian servicemen and patriotic volunteers have met their Lord, was not a reason enough to institute a martial law? Nobody on the Bankova Street (the seat of Presidential Administration in Kiev) misses those nazi volunteers I guess. However this, albeit dangerous but non-deadly altercation in the Sea of Azov is a good reason for a martial law? Now, 4 months before the presidential election?
Mustafa Nayyem (MP from Poroshenko’s party): If the martial law happens, it will last the entire December and January. And this means, that even the decision to begin registering candidates for the president could be postponed.
Number of people have suggested that Poroshenko might impose martial law to avoid an election that he is likely to lose. In July, election’s favourite, Tymoshenko suggested (hat tip Anatoly Karlin) the Presidential Administration plans to abort the elections by imposing martial law. She said Poroshenko is in talks with the Donbass rebels in order to start war.
They have already been heard that a “martial law” does not mean a declaration of war…
This is the last bell to struggle over for workers from Ukraine, who are already being recruited by the Germans. They are also being picked off by the Czechs and Slovaks, who are luring them with higher salary and a two year contract.
Already now, the Czechs are taking increasingly more Ukrainian workers from us, and soon the time will come for Germany, where a large part of professionals can leave, warns Marian Przeździecki, director of the Ukrainian branch of the “Work Service” employment agency. He says, despite huge demand from domestic companies, it is increasingly difficult to make work in Poland attractive for Ukrainians.
First, staff shortages are growing in Ukraine, especially in Western regions. Second, this year competition for Ukrainian citizens has significantly increased from the Czechs and Slovaks, who have liberalised entry procedures. This was confirmed by other agencies that specialise in recruiting Ukrainians. Krzysztof Inglot, head of Personnel Service, which already has three companies in Ukraine, admits that this year Czech and Slovakian companies are recruiting on a much larger scale than before.
60% of Ukrainians think of work abroad; 26% want to work in Poland for several years; 22% want to work in Poland permanently; Germany is the second most popular destination for Ukrainians after; Treatment of Ukrainian with insurance at ZUS has grown from 59.8 thousand in 2015 to 425 .7 thousand in 2018; 3.2 million Ukrainians work abroad.
CZECH OFFENSIVE
Michał Wierzchowski, is director of the employment agency EWL, which this year wants to bring over 15 thousand employees from Ukraine. Recently, the company also opened an office in Prague, Czech Republic. It wants to take advantage of the boom of Ukrainian employees there. [He says:]
“Despite the announcement of liberalisation of procedures for Ukrainians, nothing is happening. We are standing still, while other countries are beginning to open to them.”
In the Czech Republic where salaries are one third higher than in Poland (and in automotive industry even 50%), Ukrainians can now easily obtain a visa for 90 days, and then an employer can employ them on a 24-month work card, which is part of a government programme “Režim Ukrajina” (see here at Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs). The card pool has been doubled to 20 thousand this year. Next year it should be doubled as well.
Although, Ukrainians have to wait up to a year for such a long term visa (just like it is with work permits in Poland). However, a system of “informal accelerations” can shorten the procedure to 2-3 months. In addition, after one year you can bring your family to the Czech Republic.
Czech Minister of Labor and Social Policy Jaroslava Němcová has visited Ukraine twice this year and during the last September visit announced the introduction of a fast administrative path for employees in selected occupations, including babysitters. Already now, Ukrainians can more easily get the right to a two-year stay in Slovakia, where wages are around 20 percent. higher than in Poland.
Competition from Germany can soon become a greater problem. Since January 2019, the labor market for non-EU labor migrants, including Ukraine, has been to open more widely. From January 2019, the labor market for non-EU labor migrants, including from Ukraine will be been open more widely.
NEEDED STABILISATION
Marian Przeździecki claims that Poland ceased to be the leader of openness to employees from Ukraine. He explains:
“We fell to the last place in the region. In addition, we lag behind competition in terms of pay, and the housing conditions of employees are often worse.”
According to him, the main problem is in a limited, six months working time in Poland according to the simplified visa procedure for the so called permit. Declarations by the Ministry of the Family Labor and Social Policy that they will longer it to a year in autumn have not been implemented.
Marian Przeździecki says:
“If we do not do it, if we do not introduce facilitations that encourage permanent work and the settlement of workers from Ukraine,, we will soon lose them.”
He points out that the current system of statements supports the inflow of unskilled seasonal workers from the East, and discourages the arrival of specialists in Poland, who care for stable employment and settlement with their families.
Krzysztof Inglot says:
“We should extend the work to a license of up to 18 months and give Ukrainians incentives to work legally and bring families.”
As the head of Work Service in Ukraine says, Ukrainians or Belarusians seeking a long term residence in Poland do not have any preferences…
“They are treated the same as visitors from Bangladesh or Nepal, even though they (the Ukrainians) are culturally close to us and they adapt fast. If they could live in Poland for longer with their families, they would be more motivated to increase their qualifications. They would not change work so often from 1 or 2 zlotys of hourly rate increase, which has become a nightmare for companies, particularly in construction.”
OPINION
JACEK PIECHOTA, president of the Polish-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce
Our advantage in competition for employees from Ukraine is geographical and cultural proximity, and the fact that many [Ukrainians] are familiar with living conditions in Poland.Despite this, competition from countries where wages are higher is a real threat. Despite this, competition from countries where wages are higher is a real threat. In addition, our country’s migration policy is not very clear, the waiting time for residence and work permits is not being shortened, and some politicians combine labor migration with the migration threat. An open government declaration is needed that Ukrainians are welcome in Poland. It is also worth showing positive examples of their employment and integration, which we do in the social campaign “Partnership and employment”(„Partnerstwo i zatrudnienie”).
WORK AND SUPPORT THE ECONOMY
Transfers of money from Ukrainians working abroad has risen to $11.5 billion and is expected to increase in 2018 – estimates National Bank of Ukraine. Last year, Ukrainian migrants sent over $9.3 billion back to the country (about 9 percent of the GDP). As is estimated by the Ministry of Social Affairs of Ukraine, 3.2 million citizens of this country work continuously abroad, and another 9 million seasonally. A large part of both groups goes to Poland, where the number of employees from Ukraine is estimated at 1.8-2 million. As the Association of Entrepreneurs and Employers warns, the outflow from the Polish labor market of even some of them (in a moderate variant – 500,000) may lower our GDP by 1.6%, which was 1/3 of its growth in the previous year. For several years, employers’ organizations and economists have appealed for a coherent Polish migration policy. It was not ready in summer and in autumn it was returned for inter-ministerial consultations. The ministry of investment and development explains:
“The migration policy touches upon many topics, and their reconciliation takes time.”
Insomniac Resurrected 