Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived in the United States to participate in the 74th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, the press service of the Office of the President reported in the Telegram channel.
“Zelensky will deliver a speech during the general debate of the UN General Assembly, and will also take part in the Sustainable Development Goals Summit,” the press service said.
In New York, Zelensky will hold a series of bilateral meetings with foreign leaders, including with U.S. President Donald Trump.
In addition, during the visit, the head of the Ukrainian state will meet with leaders of the Ukrainian community in the United States, as well as with representatives of American business circles.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has signed the law “On a special procedure for removing the president of Ukraine from office (impeachment)” (No. 1012) adopted by the Verkhovna Rada.
On September 23, the bill was “returned with the signature of the president,” the parliament’s website said.
As reported, on September 10, the Verkhovna Rada adopted on the whole the presidential bill No. 1012, according to which the parliament can remove the president of Ukraine from office by impeachment only if he commits treason or another crime.
When a motion of impeachment is added to the Verkhovna Rada’s agenda, an ad hoc investigative commission is set up to look into the fact and circumstances of the president’s treason or other crime.
After the Verkhovna Rada decides to impeach the president, the parliament must appeal to the Constitutional and Supreme Courts.
“If the Constitutional and Supreme Courts confirm the constitutionality of the investigative and impeachment procedures and signs of treason or another crime committed by the Ukrainian president, the Verkhovna Rada … decides to remove the Ukrainian president from office as a result of impeachment … The relevant resolution passes according to at least three quarters of a constitutional majority of Verkhovna Rada deputies,” the bill says.
If the impeachment resolution does not pass, the Verkhovna Rada chairman will apologize to the president.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has appointed Yulia Kovaliv to the post of Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
The corresponding decree of September 20, 2019 was posted on the presidential website on Monday.
Kovaliv is head of the office of the National Investment Council under the President of Ukraine, former first deputy minister of economic development and trade of Ukraine, ex-member of the National Commission for Energy, Housing and Utilities Services Regulation (NCER) and ex-head of the supervisory board of Naftogaz Ukrainy.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said in his telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky he said nothing wrong. “The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, want to stay as far away as possible from the Joe Biden demand that the Ukrainian Government fire a prosecutor who was investigating his son, or they won’t get a very large amount of U.S. money, so they fabricate a story about me and a perfectly fine and routine conversation I had with the new President of Ukraine!” Trump said on Twitter on Saturday.
Trump said, “Nothing was said that was in any way wrong, but Biden’s demand, on the other hand, was a complete and total disaster.”
Biden earlier called on Trump to make public the transcript of the conversation with Zelensky. The call came after media reported that a U.S. intelligence officer complained about the U.S. president because of “troublesome promise” to the foreign leader (perhaps referencing Ukraine and its president).
Biden said in a statement, “[Trump] used the power and resources of the United States to pressure a sovereign nation—a partner that is still under direct assault from Russia—pushing Ukraine to subvert the rule of law in the express hope of extracting a political favor.”
Some 70% of Ukrainians polled positively assess the activity of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, while 9% take the opposite view, according to the results of a survey conducted by the sociological service of the Kyiv-based Razumkov Center on September 6-11, 2019.
The activities of the new Cabinet of Ministers are positively assessed by 45%, with 8% taking the opposite view, and the newly elected Verkhovna Rada some 44% and 10% respectively.
The activities of the Servant of the People faction in parliament are positively assessed by 50%, and 11% negatively, the European Solidarity faction some 14% and 59% respectively, Opposition Platform-For Life faction some 17% and 54%, Batkivschyna faction some 23% and 44%, Holos faction some 23% and 35% and the deputy group For the Future some 9% positively and 28% negatively.
Some 57% of respondents believe that events in Ukraine are developing in the right direction, while 17% hold the opposite view. Some 41% of respondents are of the opinion that Ukraine is able to overcome existing problems and difficulties over the next few years, while 40% said the country can overcome them in the longer term. Only 6% said Ukraine is not able to overcome them. Some 62% of respondents believe that the activities of the new government will lead to an improvement in the situation in the country, while 7% said the opposite. Some 15% said it will not significantly change the situation in the country.
Among state and public institutions, trust is most often expressed in the president (79% of respondents trust him), Ukraine’s Armed Forces (74%), volunteer organizations (69%), the State Emergencies Service (64%), the National Guard of Ukraine (64%), the Church (63%), the State Border Service (63%), volunteer battalions (62%), Ukraine’s government (57%), the parliament (57%), Ukrainian media (56%), public organizations (52%), and the National Police (51%).
Distrust is more often expressed in Russian media (80% of those surveyed do not trust them), the judicial system as a whole (72%), local courts (66%), commercial banks (65%), political parties (63%), prosecutors (61%), the Supreme Court (59%), the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (56%), the state apparatus (officials, 55%), the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (54%), the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office (53%), the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (52%), the National Bank of Ukraine (51%), the High Anti-Corruption Court (50%), and trade unions (49%).
The study interviewed 2,018 respondents aged 18 and over in all regions of Ukraine, with the exception of Russia-occupied Crimea and Russia-occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in a sample representing the adult population of the country by main socio-demographic indicators. The survey was constructed as a multi-stage sample, random with quota selection of respondents at the last stage. The theoretical sampling error (excluding the design effect) does not exceed 2.3% with a probability of 0.95.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is waiting for a report of Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) Artem Sytnyk and Head of the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) Nazar Kholodnytsky about investigation of top corruption cases.
“Law enforcement reform, overcoming corruption and judicial reform, and the first priority is elite corruption and organized crime. Three months ago I met with the leaders of NABU and SAPO. I would like to hear from them about the results of joint work on the prosecution of top corrupt officials,” Zelensky said at a meeting with the leadership of the Verkhovna Rada, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and law enforcement officials in Kyiv on Monday.
According to the president, one of the priorities in preventing corruption is the disclosure of environmental crimes.
“Environmental crimes. I demand a report from the heads of the SBI [the State Bureau of Investigations], Security Service of Ukraine, the National Police on the fight against the amber mafia, illegal deforestation, and predatory mining of minerals that belong to all the Ukrainian people,” he said.
