Zelensky to call for Donbas development in address to parliament

Ukrainian President Zelensky will call for a new
strategy for economic development in the Russian-occupied territories of
wartorn Donbas in his traditional annual address to parliament, which he will
deliver on Oct. 20 instead of April owing to the coronavirus pandemic. These
strategies include tax and customs preferences, covering military and political
risks for investors and conducting arbitrage for assets based on international
standards, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported on Oct. 19, citing an
anonymous source in The President’s Office. Zelensky will also call for the
creation of a Crimean Platform to coordinate international efforts to protect
the rights of Crimeans and deoccupy the peninsula.

The president will also dismiss accusations that he
has neglected Ukraine’s Armed Forces, stressing that the military budget has
not shrunk even during the coronavirus pandemic, the source said. Moreover,
Ukraine will begin to build two navy bases to protect the Black Sea region.

Zenon Zawada: From the basic details to emerge so far, Zelensky is proposing not
much of anything new. Many of his proposals – rehashed from his prior announcements
and even those of his predecessor – are things that he won’t be able to
accomplish as president simply because he won’t make any gains in liberating
Donbas or Crimea from Russian control. So any talk of investment there is
without substance. The most realistic proposal is the construction of two new
military bases on the Black Sea coast, one of which will happen with British support.