Journalists uncovered corruption inside the Kyiv mayor's office, while Ukrainian officials visited China for the first time in eight years. Also, will Trump be better for Ukraine than Harris?
Some elements of context for Ukrainians to consider in thinking about trump and Vice President Harris:
* J.D. Vance: His antidemocratic radicalism runs much further toward the extremist fringe than MAGA's Putinist, alt-Right version of "Christian" ethnonationalism. He is more dangerous to America's allies and international partnerships than trump.
* The Republicans in Congress: trump controls them now; if he is elected again, his grip will be tighter. Remember the 6-month delay in congressional approval of the $60B aid package for Ukraine? That was the Republicans.
* Project 2025: A centerpiece of the plan for a second trump administration is the decapitation of the professional civil service in the federal departments and agencies. Ukraine's friends will be purged.
* Immunity: The US Supreme Court ruled that presidents have absolute immunity from prosecution for official acts. To a convicted felon like trump, that looks like a get-out-of-jail-free card.
Bottom Line: Vice President Harris will be better *by far* than donald trump.
Sisters and brothers in Ukraine: Please urge every voter you know in the United States to support Kamala Harris.
It's unfortunate that greedy and arrogant men are everywhere, putting their wants and needs above everything else. I'm an American, and since Biden stepped down and Harris took over the campaign for President things have dramatically shifted. Trump is now the old man who recently claimed that if he's elected we'll never need to worry about voting again. His pick of JD Vance as his Vice President has reveled a man who is openly a misogynist, and most American women are really tired of that. Vance has also said that he doesn't care about Ukraine. It's mostly Republicans who are against Ukraine, and I want to see the first mixed-race woman elected as President of the US.
I hope American women (along with all other key electorate groups) will overwhelmingly support Harris, it might be a matter of life or death for Ukraine.
I totally agree. Trump, Vance and Republicans in general have seriously underestimated how pissed off American women, especially women of color, are. We're going to show them in November.
Vitaliy Klitschko is famous and also very popular in Germany, he is like a hero there. Even his name is spelled in a German way: they don't have a letter for the sound ч, so they put it together from t + sch (which is ш). As an outsider, my impression is that Kyiv is developing very nicely: beautiful parks everywhere, new express trams, renovated roads... the new park in Obolon... and you can even track the buses on a mobile website (EasyWay) so you know when your bus is coming. So there are improvements. As an outsider I was satisfied when I was there this year (and last year, too).
There has been some progress. At the same time, Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation said in 2021 that systemic corruption of officials at the Kyiv City State Administration likely causes approximately UAH 10 billion in annual losses to Kyiv's budget. There are countless cases of developers trying to build property where it's illegal to do so. Parking is a disaster everywhere. Several Kyiv metro stations have been so neglected that they've been closed for indefinite repairs, causing a public transport crisis (the state of public transport is a crisis in itself). And so on.
Some elements of context for Ukrainians to consider in thinking about trump and Vice President Harris:
* J.D. Vance: His antidemocratic radicalism runs much further toward the extremist fringe than MAGA's Putinist, alt-Right version of "Christian" ethnonationalism. He is more dangerous to America's allies and international partnerships than trump.
* The Republicans in Congress: trump controls them now; if he is elected again, his grip will be tighter. Remember the 6-month delay in congressional approval of the $60B aid package for Ukraine? That was the Republicans.
* Project 2025: A centerpiece of the plan for a second trump administration is the decapitation of the professional civil service in the federal departments and agencies. Ukraine's friends will be purged.
* Immunity: The US Supreme Court ruled that presidents have absolute immunity from prosecution for official acts. To a convicted felon like trump, that looks like a get-out-of-jail-free card.
Bottom Line: Vice President Harris will be better *by far* than donald trump.
Sisters and brothers in Ukraine: Please urge every voter you know in the United States to support Kamala Harris.
It's unfortunate that greedy and arrogant men are everywhere, putting their wants and needs above everything else. I'm an American, and since Biden stepped down and Harris took over the campaign for President things have dramatically shifted. Trump is now the old man who recently claimed that if he's elected we'll never need to worry about voting again. His pick of JD Vance as his Vice President has reveled a man who is openly a misogynist, and most American women are really tired of that. Vance has also said that he doesn't care about Ukraine. It's mostly Republicans who are against Ukraine, and I want to see the first mixed-race woman elected as President of the US.
I hope American women (along with all other key electorate groups) will overwhelmingly support Harris, it might be a matter of life or death for Ukraine.
I totally agree. Trump, Vance and Republicans in general have seriously underestimated how pissed off American women, especially women of color, are. We're going to show them in November.
Vitaliy Klitschko is famous and also very popular in Germany, he is like a hero there. Even his name is spelled in a German way: they don't have a letter for the sound ч, so they put it together from t + sch (which is ш). As an outsider, my impression is that Kyiv is developing very nicely: beautiful parks everywhere, new express trams, renovated roads... the new park in Obolon... and you can even track the buses on a mobile website (EasyWay) so you know when your bus is coming. So there are improvements. As an outsider I was satisfied when I was there this year (and last year, too).
There has been some progress. At the same time, Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation said in 2021 that systemic corruption of officials at the Kyiv City State Administration likely causes approximately UAH 10 billion in annual losses to Kyiv's budget. There are countless cases of developers trying to build property where it's illegal to do so. Parking is a disaster everywhere. Several Kyiv metro stations have been so neglected that they've been closed for indefinite repairs, causing a public transport crisis (the state of public transport is a crisis in itself). And so on.
Well, yes, the network of those marshrutkas could be upgraded to proper buses. The city is big enough for normal sized city buses everywhere.