Resignations Provoked A 'Shake-Up' Inside Ukraine's Govt - Minister

The resignation of Aivaras Abromavicius, Ukraine’s Minister of Economic Development and Trade on February 3rd caused a shake up both in and outside of Ukraine. Many ministers that had previously resigned are using this window of opportunity to rejoin the Ministry in order to push forward stalled reforms.

“What Aivaras Abromavicius did opened up an opportunity to boost certain reform processes that were started months ago in Ukraine, and we couldn’t complete for one or another reason…it created a certain force that we would like to use for the good of the country,” explains Andrii Pivovarskyi, Ukraine’s Minister of Infrastructure.

At a recent emergency cabinet meeting, Pivovarskyi and his colleagues outlined a number of principles that should be put forward in order for them continue their work: “One of them if the compensation for civil servants…It’s impossible to perform our duties based on the current compensation that we have for civil servants.”

The second principle calls for the mass privatization, “which will help eliminate a major source of unofficial corrupt income that comes from state-owned enterprises to the pockets of corrupt individuals,” adds Pivovarskyi.

Pivovarskyi says that the Government is grateful for the support from their foreign friends and Western partners. However, they also need support from the inside to do their job: “Let’s just do it. Otherwise, we will not go on. And we need strict deadlines…We can do it now. “

Hromadske’s Alexandra Azarkhina spoke to Andrii Pivovarskyi, Ukrainian Minister of Infrastructure in Kyiv on February 5th, 2016.