The key to victory in the war lies in the unity of both the state and military apparatus. This was stated by Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Chairman of the Kyiv Security Forum and Prime Minister of Ukraine from 2014 to 2016, in an interview with RBC-Ukraine.
“We must win the war. The foundation for winning the war is the full mobilisation of both the state and military apparatus, and their unity. The functioning of democratic systems in wartime differs from that in peacetime, because everything must be geared towards preserving the Ukrainian state and securing victory,” he noted.
Yatsenyuk emphasised that such mobilisation requires efficiency, transparency in decision-making and the maintenance of the government’s legitimacy.
“For me, the legitimacy of the authorities is not simply that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is, as of today, the lawfully elected president, exercising his powers on a legitimate basis during martial law. For me, it means that the people trust the country’s leadership, and the country’s leadership is aware of its responsibility to the people. That is the spirit of democracy,” he said.
The former prime minister also emphasised that the post-war period will be a time of complex reconstruction. “I cannot yet see any sign of a just and honest peace on the horizon… This will not simply be a time of peace – we will not return to 2019 or 2021. It will be an incredible time of reconstruction – not just economic, but psychological, physical and moral. And for that period, we will need democratic institutions with ‘heavyweights’, moral authorities and highly effective managers,” added Yatsenyuk.