Martial law enacted

UKRAINE - In Brief 27 Nov 2018 by Dmytro Boyarchuk

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Yesterday parliament enacted martial law for 10 regions for 30 days starting from November 28. MPs harshly reacted to the Presidents’ proposal to enact martial law for the whole territory and for 60 days, suspecting that Petro Poroshenko might use military regime for his political needs. Consensus was reached on 30 days of military regime and on regions where Russia’s attack is the most probable (including from the territory of Transnistria where Russian troops are also located). Also parliament officially appointed presidential elections for March 31, 2019 to dispel concerns about Poroshenko’s intentions to cancel elections. Despite the initial proposal was rejected, President Poroshenko reached his target, I believe. As discussed in yesterday's brief he targeted to impose military agenda on pre-election discussion and move away from speculations about gas prices. Let alone funny jokes from comedian Vladimir Zelenskiy. From what I see in social media people have been so scared about risks of new military escalation and probable concentration of power that they totally forget about issues they have been actively discussing just few days ago. Approval of martial law just for 30 days and for limited number of regions was perceived as a great relief. From now the main target for President Poroshenko will be to keep the national security issue in the headlines. The target is not very complicated given never-ending aggression from Moscow.