Volodymyr Zelensky stated in December 2022 that “aid to Ukraine is an investment in democracy.” The president did so in Washington, before a joint session of the US Congress. Last September, again in the North American capital, he asked to speak to parliamentarians for the second time, but the president of the House of Representatives did not allow it and the refusal continued three months later, in December, when he returned to the White House. in a desperate attempt to get Congress to approve a new aid package for Ukraine. A year of war had been enough for democracy to no longer be an infallible argument and aid remains blocked on Capitol Hill.
The war between Russia and Ukraine has often been framed as the war between democracy and authoritarianism. By containing the advance of the Russian army, Ukrainian forces are defending Eastern Europe, happily anchored in NATO and the European Union.
Vladimir Putin probably would not have needed to invade Ukraine if the democratic Maidan revolution had failed ten years ago. Today, Ukraine would be a satellite of Russia, as is Belarus. But it has resisted and is on its way to joining NATO and the EU.
The price of this resistance is enormous, especially in human lives, but also in rights and freedoms. Democracy is suspended. There are no elections of any kind. This same month of March the presidential elections should be held and Zelensky, according to what he stated when he was elected in 2019, was not going to run.
War prevents democracy. The media have almost completely lost plurality. An electoral campaign, as Zelensky has recognized, would divide a country that needs unity. The majority of citizens would not be able to vote. Between four and six million Ukrainians live in occupied areas, another million are in Russia and four million in EU countries. One third of the population serves or is related to the armed forces, so they cannot have political affiliation. The campaign is unviable. Rallies would be an easy target for Russian artillery and are prohibited. Martial law prevents any type of concentration.
Parliament recovered its activity a year ago. Zelensky's party occupies 254 of the 450 seats and has a job. The convergence process with the EU requires the approval of hundreds of laws. In December, the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes was voted, especially to relieve post-traumatic stress in the military. The law on same-sex marriage, however, is stagnant. It demands a modification of the Constitution for which there is no consensus. Martial law grants broad powers to Zelensky, who rules by decree. There is no time to process public contracts, to complete the bureaucratic and political journey that any decision-making requires in a normal democracy. The Ukrainian one is not.
Mayors have lost much of their power. In many municipalities they have been replaced by military administrators. Pro-Russian parties are illegal. The population accepts it because there is no other choice. The only thing it asks for is management. Roads, railways, bridges and destroyed power plants must be repaired, and do so with the certainty that they will be bombed again. Aid must be channeled to people who have lost their homes. Unemployment is very high among the displaced.
War moves a lot of money and money encourages corruption. Ukraine is the second most corrupt country in the world, according to the Transparency International organization. The first is Russia.
Zelensky fights on this second front with mixed success. He has had to dismiss the Minister of Defense because the army bought uniforms and food at exorbitant prices.
After the war, corruption is the issue that worries Ukrainians the most, even though the oligarchs have lost much of their power. Now they cannot finance political parties or bid for public goods that are privatized. Most are on a public list. Politicians are also on a list that includes their income and assets.
The Ministry of Digital Transformation has launched platforms such as Prozorro, for public procurement, or Diia, where citizens can carry out all types of procedures, from registering a car to a birth, paying a tax or obtaining a digital passport, increasing the efficiency and reduce corruption.
“The more human intervention in administration is reduced, the more the possibilities of corruption are also reduced,” acknowledge George Ingram and Priya Vora, researchers at the Brookings Institute in Washington. Although they admit that transforming the administration will take at least a decade, they assure that the process is unstoppable: “Even in the toughest of times, the Government's action and the resistance of the population are extraordinary.”
The European Union is a beacon, a goal that encourages reforms. The police, violent and very corrupt before the war, are much more civil today. Society – which has given rise to such important movements as the feminist Femen – is today more open and tolerant, despite the war.
Ukraine resists thanks to the hundreds of thousands of citizens who volunteered in the first days of the Russian invasion. Only the injured have been discharged. For the rest there is no limit to the time they must serve. The General Staff still needs more men, half a million more, but Zelensky is reluctant to order the recruitment. He fears that there will be protests, as there have already been, albeit token ones, in favor of a limit on combat time.
The great paradox of these two years of war is not so much the great difficulties in advancing democracy, but rather that in defending it, Ukrainians have lost many of its benefits. Defending freedom, as you have seen, requires giving it up.
