President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that returning the sense of justice to the citizens of Ukraine is as important for the authorities as working on economic growth, and this can be achieved by eliminating corruption and punishing criminals, regardless of their status.
“The return of the faith in justice to the citizens by overcoming years of corruption due to the political will and creation of independent law enforcement, anticorruption and judicial authorities has the same importance,” the Head of State said during a speech at the 16th annual YES meeting held at the Mystetskyi Arsenal in Kyiv.
The Head of State noted that predictions of skeptics who didn’t believe in the possibility of achieving the goal motivated him in that issue.
“We count on our enemies and constant skeptics. They say that this is not possible in Ukraine. And it's great that they say so. Because our team has a very good tradition: the less they believe in us, the better results we achieve. This was the case with the presidential elections, with the parliamentary ones. This was the case with the dissolution of the Verkhovna Rada, with the abolition of parliamentary immunity. This will be the case with the fight against corruption,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
The President of Ukraine emphasized: "Happiness is to see a thief in prison, not in the Maldives".
Answering questions during the panel discussion, the Head of State recalled that the new government had already taken a number of steps to fight corruption in Ukraine. A new Prosecutor General was appointed, the Prosecutor's Office was restarted, the Security Service of Ukraine was restarted, the Supreme Anticorruption Court started its work on September 5. For its effective functioning, the Verkhovna Rada is considering a bill, initiated by the President, that will focus the court solely on top corruption and help avoid blocking its work.
He also added that the Antitrust Committee was being restarted, laws were being passed that would reduce pressure on business.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that a lot of people considered his team's steps too hasty. “Indeed, many people now say that we are launching anticorruption bodies very quickly. I think you can afford mistakes here if you want a very fast, correct result,” the President summarized.
