Voice party holds auto protest against Donbas concessions

The pro-Western Voice party held an automobile protest
in Kyiv on Mar. 26 against plans to create the consultative council within the
Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk to resolve the warfare in Donbas. The
protest, under the slogan of “Terrorism is Worse than the Virus,” was led by
the party head, IT executive Kira Rudyk, and its former head, rock star
Sviatoslav Vakarchuk. Trilateral Contact Group talks reportedly occurred the
day of the protest, but only having shifted online after the coronavirus
outbreak.

The Voice party called upon Ukraine’s negotiators to
reject any direct talks with Russia’s proxies in Donbas, which they argue would
set a legal precedent in legitimizing their self-declared republics and
removing responsibility from Moscow. As its strategy, the Voice party has
called for pressuring the Kremlin to join Ukraine in freezing the warfare
in Donbas indefinitely. Oleksiy Reznikov, the recently
appointed deputy prime minister for reintegrating the occupied territories, on
Mar. 25 assured the public nothing could be signed, and any such plans will
first need approval from Western authorities.

Recall, lead negotiator Leonid Kuchma signed a
protocol on Mar. 11 in Minsk initiating talks to create a consultative group,
which would involve direct negotiations
between Ukrainian officials and Russian proxies in Donbas. The decision drew
harsh criticism from Ukraine’s pro-Western forces, including MPs with the pro-presidential People’s Servant party.
In response to such criticism, People’s Servant MP Oleksandr Kachura said the
consultative group would not include representatives of terrorist
organizations. “They want to remove them entirely from this process and replace
them with normal Ukrainian citizens who are respected, both in the controlled
and the uncontrolled territories,” he said, as reported by the radiosvoboda.org
news site on Mar. 24.

Zenon Zawada: Driving in
automobiles, while waving flags and speaking in megaphones, is a creative
protest tactic for the virus quarantine, which first emerged during the
Euromaidan of 2013. While the conservative European Solidarity party (led by
former President Poroshenko) has the greater electoral support, it’s the Voice
party that has the larger protest potential, since its neoliberal policies have
attracted active youth. And in order to demonstrate its relevance and to
survive in Ukraine’s political jungle, the Voice party needs to engage in such
political activity, in the media and in the street.

However, we don’t think the Zelensky administration
will be much impressed by protests unless they’re very big (at least 100,000
people). Many voters, and numerous oligarchs, want to accelerate the peace
process (or capitulation process, depending on how one views it), regardless of
the mid- to long-term costs.