On Sunday, July 6, founder of the New Ukraine Institute for Strategic Studies Serhiy Lovochkin gave an interview with the program Facts of the Week with Oksana Sokolova on ICTV channel.  

Host: We are going to discuss possible early parliamentary elections and unexpected appointments with someone who knows the Ukrainian government system in the Presidential Administration to the smallest detail - Serhiy Liovochkin. Mr. Liovochkin, you have gone off the grid for a while, in fact, since your resignation from the Administration. Where have you been?

Serhiy Lovochkin, the founder of the New Ukraine Institute for Strategic Studies:

All my life my team and I worked on reforms in public administration. And on November 30 last year I submitted my political resignation. It was a political protest against the actions of the authorities, who used force against people on the Maidan, when many young people suffered. Then we made a final decision that we would leave that Administration. And ever since that time we have been building the New Ukraine Institute. In fact, we continued to work on reforms, engage with diplomats, forged relations with relevant institutes in the USA and Europe. We worked to ensure the early signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union. In addition to the development of economic reforms, the Institute is now working to address the problems of security, corruption, environmental issues, cultural and humanitarian issues. Some of the things we worked on in recent years included possible scenarios of events in Crimea. And now the Institute has developed a Donbas recovery plan ready to be implemented after the war.

Host: You resigned a few months prior to the events that began to unfold on the peninsula. Has the annexation of Crimea taken you by surprise, or were there any signals while you still were in office that indicated that Russia could do something like this?

S. Lovochkin: It was totally unexpected. I think that no one in Russia prepared such plans. They were made impromptu in recent months. At the same time, I have to talk about it, we should not only think about what to do with Crimea, but rather analyze how the annexation became possible. Everyone knows that my sister was elected in a Feodosia district, which includes three military units. We were in contact with the commanders of these units till the last minute, tried to send them everything they needed: food, medications. But here’s the most important thing they asked for: “Get in touch with the authorities, we do not get any orders, we are confused, we do not know what to do. And all of this calls for answers to these questions. But we certainly must look forward, we must think how to return Crimea to Ukraine.  And Ukraine must get to work on this issue.

Host: Speaking about the situation in Donbas. You are familiar with the Russian political elite. What is your prediction, can the Kremlin drop this “Novorossiya project,” or will they keep pushing it?

S. Lovochkin: I believe that last week was very successful for Ukrainian soldiers. And the President’s peace plan, which unfortunately, has not been fully implemented, through no fault of Ukraine, it still finds its implementation now. Furthermore, the President’s effort to restore a more effective communication between the antiterrorist operation forces yields first results. You saw that yesterday the national flag was raised over Sloviansk again - a very important event. I hope that in the coming weeks, in cooperation with all stakeholders, especially with the international community, a plan and a possibility will be found to end the active military phase of the confrontation. After this the question will arise - what to do in Donbas? Thousands of people. Infrastructure must be restored. After all, terrorists will not rebuilt infrastructure in Donbas.

Host: What should be our next steps in Donbas?

S. Lovochkin: The New Ukraine Institute prepared a plan for post-war reconstruction of Donbas. It addresses the issues of social security, infrastructure restoration, the functioning of the government, accumulated humanitarian problems. The presentation of the plan will be held on Wednesday at the New Ukraine Institute. We must provide a decent benefits package to people, so that they may feel protected, just like other Ukrainians, who live in Kyiv or Lviv.

Host: You are now talking as a politician. You say that you deal more with the Institute, but there are rumors that you are connected to a new political party - the Ukraine Development Party. You have not attended the congress of this party, but there were some rumors about that. Do you have anything to do with this party?

S. Lovochkin: I like the team that now works in this party. I believe that these are some young and very effective managers. There is a huge number of young people. More than 60% of party are new faces. For the first time in Ukraine we have a political party that is not leader-driven. I mean, when there is a chief, everyone in all oblasts line up under his umbrella and his personal popularity. First of all, the Ukraine Development Party gathers its team and moves forward, like all classical political models in the West, from the ground up. I think this party will be successful, it will win the parliamentary elections. And I sincerely wish them good luck in this parliamentary campaign, just like many other political forces that implement pro-Ukrainian, European integration policy, who think about the welfare and economic development of our country.

Host: We see in this party many faces that we used to see in the Party of Regions, even the acronym of the party [in Ukrainian] is very close. Is it a coincidence or will the new party be a successor or an alternative to the Party of Regions?

S. Lovochkin: It is not a [PoR] successor in any way. There are new ideas, there are new faces, there are new people. I think that this party may become a reliable defender of the interests, above all, of people, who live in eastern and south-eastern Ukraine.

Host: Are we going to see you on the party ticket?

S. Lovochkin: I decided to take part in this parliamentary campaign, I think it should start as soon as possible. Ukraine needs an early parliamentary election. Ukraine’s parliament needs a reset. I hope that this will happen soon. But how I shall run for parliament, I shall determine later.

Host: Will the election take place this autumn? What is your prognosis?

S. Lovochkin: I believe that the election should take place this autumn.

Host: Thank you.