The Long War #28
Bankova gossip, working at Lviv’s public water utility, and Ukraine's struggle to create its own English-language outlet
KYIV—Hello everyone and welcome to our first “normal” issue of ‘The Long War’ in a little while. It’s a fairly short one, with just three stories from Ukrainian media: a look at the latest gossip inside the Ukrainian government; a story about the war-related challenges faced by a public utility company in the city of Lviv; and an investigation into the latest attempt by Ukrainian authorities to launch a successful, English-language media (spoiler: it is not going to work).
I also wanted to highlight a podcast published by Al Jazeera which featured as a guest Kateryna Malofieieva, a fantastic Ukrainian journalist, to talk about the underreported topic of how the mobilization process is now directly impacting women as well—in particular as women with a medical background are now required to register to their local military recruitment office (which isn’t synonymous with mobilization, but would make it easier for the State to mobilize them if necessary).
Finally, a bit of self-promotion: if you’re interested in the topic of Ukrainian elections, I wrote a story for Foreign Policy showing how, despite almost overwhelming skepticism among local politicians and activists, Ukrainian authorities (and, in particular, the Central election commission) have already started thinking about the countless challenges, small and huge, that will inevitably come with the organization of the next election, whether these unfold in wartime or not. As for my personal opinion: despite the very real challenges, constitutional issues, current lack of demand for elections by Ukrainian society and steadfast opposition by civil society, I do think there’s a real chance of elections happening in the near(ish) future. As always, everything depends on the frontline situation.
Something to read
NV (in Ukrainian & Russian) | Nervous Cabinet. Which ministers have lost the Bankova’s favor, who is loved and who can be fired | October 7
This piece by respected outlet NV very much feels like a pre-invasion bit of political writing, with its dozen of anonymous sources whispering to the author who’s in and who’s out at the Bankova (the imposing, concrete building that houses the president and his team).
Here’s the TL;DR: recently-appointed Minister of Strategic Industries Oleksandr Kamyshin and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, as well as long-standing Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov, are among the president’s favorites; Infrastructure minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, often described as close to Volodymyr Zelensky, isn’t doing so hot these days as the presidential administration suspects him of “running too often to a certain embassy and giving too much information” one source said mysteriously; Also in increasing tension with the Bankova is Foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba who, according to a source, “doesn’t like to start complex tasks that he could fail”.
But really, the main point of this story to me is that it is a very normal piece of political journalism, which mostly serves to highlight how central having Zelensky’s favor now is (it might seem obvious now—it really wasn’t before the invasion). Yulia Zabelina, the journalist who wrote the story, mentioned in a Facebook post one quote from one of her sources that she couldn’t include: “it’s good to become close to the president but, on the other hand, the closer you get, the more likely you are to stop being his favorite”.
Zaxid (in Ukrainian) | How Lvivvodokanal operates during the war | September 29
A day in the life of Lviv’s public water utility operator. The story is largely about how the war has affected the company, and how the war has affected the company is largely about labor and the increasing struggle to find it. One obvious change for this public company in Western Ukraine is that it has hired displaced Ukrainians, about 50 of them, including several men from the ravaged town of Severodonetsk. Lvivvodokanal had about 1,800 employees before the Russian invasion started (probably much fewer now).
Like so many other Ukrainian companies, Lvivvodokanal is facing a personnel shortage, triggered by the mass exodus at the beginning of the war and deepened by the mobilization process which, according to the company, saw 68 workers drafted into the military. And like many other companies (we already talked about this topic in the agricultural sector in ‘The Long War #24’) Lvivvodokanal is struggling with the “booking” system, which allows some companies operating in sectors deemed strategic to shield part of their workforce against mobilization. At Lvivvodokanal, 300 workers out of 700 fighting-age men have received such a protection. Another thing that makes hiring difficult—and something that I’ve also heard in other places—is that being hired requires people, and notably displaced Ukrainians, to go to the local military recruiting center in order to update their information, something that many aren’t eager to do.
NGL Media (in Ukrainian) | Money to the Wind | September 30
This latest story by Lviv-based investigative outlet NGL Media focuses on ‘The Gaze’, an English-language news website launched by Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture just four months ago with the vague aim of informing foreigners on the situation in Ukraine. It is the latest of multiple attempts by Ukrainian authorities to launch a successful, English-language media. And like most previous attempts, it looks to be well on its way to failing, as (according to NGL Media), more than 64 million hryvnias (about $1.8 million) have already been spent on a media that attracted last month about 26,000 visits to its website.
Frankly, I mostly wanted to use this interesting but utterly unsurprising investigation to highlight the one recent Ukrainian public media project that can be described as a success story: public broadcaster Suspilne. The media group operates four national TV channels, five radio channels and a national website. Most importantly, it also operates dedicated TV and radio channels as well as websites in every single Ukrainian region, a reliable regional coverage that became incredibly important in the early days of the Russian invasion.
Finally, it has also shown its professionalism and editorial independence by openly criticizing state authorities: when Ukraine’s Medical Command (a separate branch of the Ukrainian military) refused for several months to answer their questions, they ended up publishing a long story denouncing that refusal, laying down the questions and explaining why they wanted to ask those questions. In Ukraine, where media has long been seen as nothing more than a tool of influence and where the invasion led to the creation of a “TV marathon” that has often been denounced as a way for the government to control information, that’s not nothing.