On December 16, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi gave a long interview to the American publication The New York Times in which he talked about the vaccine against the coronavirus, the construction of roads, plans for the reintegration of Donbass and much more.
The translation of the full text of the interview is published by the president's website.
— Mr. President, good afternoon. Thank you for your time. See you next time. What are the plans for 2021, what are the main problems that need to be solved in Ukraine?
— You started with the most difficult question. I used to live with global plans. When he became the President of Ukraine, except for the strategic and large ones, unfortunately, you and I all got covid, and we all live today. Every morning I wake up and receive monitoring: from seven in the morning separately from the Ministry of Health, separately from the Prime Minister, separately from the National Security Council. From different regions, where how many people got sick, where how many, alas, died. I demand that I have detailed figures - who died, age, how many doctors, the number of policemen, what percentage of teachers, all contact people, those who potentially have more contacts and can be carriers. And, of course, the number of children — sick and dead.
But, thank God, statistics regarding children both in our country and in the whole world are minimized, since children are the easiest to tolerate. Today, since morning, I am in a better mood, because for two or three weeks in a row we have been receiving statistics, let's say, of the stabilization of this difficult situation. Because about a month ago, we had a wave, and we received a daily increase of +1000 patients. 40 million is a lot, I think. And although the doctors reassure me that this is normal compared to other European countries, you know that first of all you look at what you have, as they say, what is in your house, and then what your neighbors have. It is important that the neighbors have, but still everyone thinks about their home. Therefore, this is the situation now. Now the mortality rate has decreased, this is a good signal, because the coronavirus mutates, perhaps it weakens or the human body adapts - then this is a small mortality rate. But I believe that this is the merit of the medical system and doctors, who have to cope faster. Speed is very important in this matter, because we are fighting for people's lives. Unfortunately, I state that the medical system in Ukraine has collapsed.— I still have a question about the vaccine. But first I would like to ask about your tasks in the country. Your former head of the Administration, Andrei Bohdan, said that the Servant of the People party no longer has a decisive voice in the Council. How will you manage to complete all the tasks? Are you ready, if necessary, to cooperate with Petro Poroshenko's "EC" party?
— The first question was difficult, and the second was not very pleasant. This is normal, this is life. Let me immediately answer about the plans, that is, about how to implement them, because some of them are actually related to voting. Plans. First, we opened the land market for the first time in 28 years, and adopted important bills in this direction. There were everything - strikes, political influence of various financial groups, however, absolutely no one wanted us to pass the bill on land - the main bill for today. Land reform has already begun - for the first time in 28 years. This is a great achievement. The second story is infrastructure, which, I believe, was not in the country, or rather, it was, but it was very little, there were no roads in Ukraine. When we talk about the next step, I will talk about investments, concessions, and so on. And in order to invite someone, you need to understand that the person must somehow fly to you and reach you.
For this, it is necessary to make infrastructure - this is a showcase. There are many accusations against me, they say, during the pandemic, I spent a lot of time on infrastructure. Now people saw that our ambulances began to reach the sick quickly. Our fire engines (fire engines) started arriving faster. And unfortunately, this happened to us - there was a big fire in the east of Ukraine, and there were times when we couldn't get there. And now it is not possible to get there in a day, but there is an opportunity to get there in minutes. When we put out fires, we saved a huge number of lives. Now we see that infrastructure is important. We have already made, and this is confirmed, four thousand kilometers of roads this year, which exceeds the total number of kilometers of roads made in the previous 10 years. They did 10 times more in an hour than in ten years in total. I think this is the right step. I'll be honest, I'm very proud of this, I believe that we all worked here. You can't stop. We really have a chance to build all infrastructure nodes in Ukraine in four to five years. We built many bridges, which is also important. By the way, we are building infrastructure, starting with communication with the occupied territories. Humanitarian cargoes are now arriving there, both from Ukraine and from the Red Cross. There we simply built bridges, opened checkpoints - checkpoints, that was not the case. The same was done on the territory adjacent to the Crimean peninsula occupied by the Russians. Modern checkpoints have also been opened there, people come, they can get all administrative and financial services there, rest, take a shower.
These are important changes and important reforms not only in laws, in words, but also in practice. Next, investments are like blood for the body. I believe that Ukraine will die without them. Investments are needed. They made a large platform for privatization, several thousand enterprises were transferred to the State Property Fund, we are engaged in privatization. Small and medium-sized privatization "flew" - from the point of view of speed, all plans were fulfilled. After large-scale privatization, it was prohibited for the time of the crisis, so it was stopped a little, but there is a lot being done there. They voted for an important concession law that did not exist. Several Ukrainian ports have already been handed over to foreign investors, contracts have been signed, and they are already investing money.
We have also reached a very important strategic stage - we have found a balance among law enforcement agencies, and the reform of the Security Service of Ukraine, which will not deal with the economy, will be launched. We launched and actually finished the reform of the Prosecutor General's Office. There is not only the law - a lot has been reformatted, prosecutors have passed competitions. We launched the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court, and already there are sentences — it has been working for more than a year. My inauguration as President was in May, and on September 5 we launched the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court. I believe that this is important, because the sore spot in Ukraine is the courts, and now the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court, now we are "fighting" with some judges of the Constitutional Court who want to destroy the anti-corruption structure in Ukraine. They will not succeed. We will reformat all this.
And the next big step is the global judicial reform in Ukraine, which we will start to implement from next year, since many laws have already been prepared, and the stages of the implementation of these reforms have been prepared. We are moving little by little. I will say frankly, due to the pandemic, we redirected a lot of money that was going to infrastructure to medicine, and raised the salaries of doctors. All doctors who fight covid receive 300% of their salary today.
Speaking of Poroshenko, you mentioned Andrey Bohdan, ego is the word for the most part. Yes, there is influence of large financial groups, which are sometimes called oligarchs, on all deputies of all parties. Indeed, the majority of the "Servant of the People" party does not benefit anyone. But the answer is simple: laws are voted on, and the result is on the scoreboard. Today we can look at the result: laws are voted on. Indeed, it is much more complicated than it was originally. But you must understand that there are too many interested parties to hinder the reforms that the President wants to make with the party. It is clear that there are different people in the party, and they are all living people who are influenced in different ways, psychologically. They want to influence all the financial groups, including the financial groups of Medvedchuk and Poroshenko, which are also represented in the parliament. Therefore, regarding the answer to the second question, are we ready to cooperate, I do not understand with whom. Poroshenko is not ready to cooperate with the oligarch. If someone offers some good initiatives within the deputies' corps, then I know that all the deputies cooperate with each other. Everything that is for the benefit of Ukraine is okay. Everything that is connected with some things, with lobbying or risks for Ukraine, I am not ready.
- Regarding the oligarchs. You said during the election campaign that you would defeat corruption. And corruption is a tool of oligarchs. Do you think that in order to defeat corruption, it is necessary to defeat the oligarchs?
- Definitely. You see, this is a question that worries everyone. I was worried as a citizen. I believe that the oligarchs in this civilized world have two ways out: the oligarchs become big business, and then they have no influence on politics or the mass media. Then, if they pay taxes and provide jobs, the state has excellent working relations with them. If financial groups have political influence, are constantly engaged in lobbying, have mass media in which they are not just minorities, but control information policy, they turn from large entrepreneurs into oligarchs. And then the state must fight with them. What do we have? I told you that they are represented in the Verkhovna Rada, and, unfortunately, I have to state that the owners of all television groups today are such large entrepreneurs as we call them, oligarchs. When the state manages to prevent these things, then we will defeat the oligarchs. Will we completely defeat corruption after defeating the oligarchs? No. Because corruption is defeated not only by such means. I believe that, first of all, digitization is necessary, so this is a separate direction that we are engaged in. Less contact between a person and an official - more digitally directed. We have already done a lot of things: both driver's licenses and digital passports. We are the first in the world to do this. We did this very quickly: now all subsidies that small businesses will receive will be received electronically again. This is our big portal called "Diya" - a resource on which all these rights, passports, foreign passports, etc. will be able to get money by registering there if we introduce a lockdown.
— Kolomoisky openly criticizes the IMF's anti-corruption requirements for regulation in the banking sector, he talked about Ukraine's turn to Russia. What are you doing now to show that you don't share his views? If you do not share them...
— I'm not sure that I have to show something, because they usually show people who want to publicly demonstrate the inauthenticity of their internal decisions. I believe that the state clearly positions its policy. Igor Kolomoisky is not the president. And he cannot speak on behalf of Ukraine, on behalf of the President of Ukraine, on behalf of the Government of Ukraine. These are the statements of one of the businessmen, one of the oligarchs. As for our strategic partners, Ukraine has chosen strategic partners for itself - the EU, NATO, the USA - these are our important partners who support us in the sanctions policy against Russian aggression in the Donbass. As for me personally, my position is clear and direct: we, of course, want to be an independent, strong country. Of course, we want to see ourselves within the European Community, within the EU. Of course, we are grateful to the USA, which supports us, it is our strategic partner. We have become a partner with enhanced capabilities of NATO. These are actions, not words. And big actions, so they lead to results. And someone's statements cannot influence public opinion on the geopolitical direction of Ukraine.
— Ego (Ihor Kolomoiskyi. — Ed.) position on the reform, promotion of the idea of "sons" on the Ego TV channel. How can you show that he will not affect the reform in the banking sector?— Regarding the banking sphere... We adopted a very complicated law on the impossibility of external influence on the banking sector. It was very difficult to give him to us, we took him very long. Here I would like the international partners to analyze all the parties that did not vote for this law. I think there is an answer there. Because sometimes, declaring their democratic or pro-European position, some so-called pro-European parties in the parliament of Ukraine did not vote for this bill. It seems to me that this is another indicator not of empty rhetoric, not of empty politics, but of real actions. I believe that we have won in this direction, therefore no one, including Kolomoisky, can influence the banking sector today.
The National Bank is independent. Monetary policy and general policy of the National Bank are currently independent. They have full support from me. This also applies to anti-corruption bodies. They perfectly understand that I do not "break" them, do not interfere in their serious cases. I'll be honest, on the contrary, they turn to me for support and in very difficult situations they receive this support. Although I do not interfere in the activities of law enforcement agencies, I sometimes turn to them and say: "Let's speed up the process, because there is a feeling that sometimes in serious cases you are delaying the process." After all, a person can be influenced when he gives this opportunity. The people have given me such a mandate of trust, I believe that no one can and is not able to influence me with this mandate.
— There will be a new president in the United States in the new year. How do you see the relationship between the USA and Ukraine?
— First, I want to thank the United States as a whole for its constant bipartisan support, as well as for the support of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. We are strategic partners. It seems to me that the attitude of the USA towards Ukraine is the same as the attitude of the USA towards democracy. Regardless of who the president is, he will always respect democracy, and in the same way, regardless of who the President is, he will always have such an attitude toward Ukraine. At least that's how it seems to me. The residents of the USA themselves will not allow anti-Ukrainian rhetoric to anyone who represents the government, because America actually shows its support, we are grateful for the sanctions policy - it is serious. Both about the Crimean sanctions and about "Nord Stream" - this was strategic for us (important. - Ed.), and it was very difficult. As for the Nord Stream, the USA definitely played the main role here. Therefore, I must thank the United States of the period of Donald Trump and his administration for this.
I am grateful for the fact that we have become NATO partners with enhanced capabilities, for all sanctions against Russia, and also for training with NATO. Our relationship does not end. As for the economy, I believe that these relations were few. I really liked the messages of the new President, Mrs. Joe Biden, who stated that they, his team, have a concept of a global strategic vision of security in Europe. And, of course, this is very important for us. Because if we are talking about security in Europe, then the only war in Europe today is the war in Donbass. This is a war, a war precisely in Ukraine. The new President Joe Biden, it seems to me, knows Ukraine better than his predecessor, because even before his presidency, he had deep relations with Ukraine, so to speak, and he understands Russians well, he understands well the difference between Ukraine and Russia, and, I think, well understands the mentality of Ukrainians. This will help strengthen these relations and add to the process of settling the war in Donbass and the de-occupation of our territories. It seems to me that the USA can help a lot, very much.
— In the scandalous impeachment case, you found yourself between Trump and Biden. Now that the elections have passed, do you think that Ukraine will be free from American politics? Are you happy about it? How do you think, after the elections in America took place and the competition between Trump and Biden is already in the past, can Ukraine be free from this conflict?
— To be honest, I do not think that Ukraine was the object of this conflict, it is still the internal policy of the United States. I have repeatedly said that I do not want Ukraine to be subjectivized in this direction, because it is not our country. We are excellent partners. But where are the partners? Let's be great partners in geopolitics, in the economy between our countries, but certainly not between individuals, especially between two candidates for the post of the next US president. Therefore, I do not believe that we were in this conflict. Okay, we were delayed.
But I believe that we behaved with dignity, as befits an independent country, even in spite of the fact that it is territorially and numerically smaller than the United States. I mean that it is important to remain a geopolitical partner and strengthen the economic direction that is lacking between our countries. Although there was a turnover of about 6 billion in 2019, although we are still a big country, we have an interest in LNG (in liquefied gas — Red.), agriculture, mechanical engineering, attracting American technologies, we have an interest in the exchange of experience and in the IT sphere, that is why we have good specialists, and in the USA they are strong. Doing some big things, discoveries in the future - that's the interest of interaction with the USA, that's what, it seems to me, was missing for a long time in Ukraine and the USA.
We are a space power, the United States of America, too, we can remember the same nineties, when we had a spaceship flight with our first Ukrainian cosmonaut Kadenyuk, and then together with the USA, with partners, a case was being prepared. More than 20 years have passed, and there have been no more such discoveries in science, art, technology, medicine, such global modern things. This is where the talents of one and the other country need to be moved.— Would you like the USA to play an active role in the negotiations to settle the conflict with Russia? Should the United States participate in the Norman format?
- I would really like to. You know, we really don't want to stand still. And indeed, in the Norman format, which gave rise to the Minsk agreements, we made important, I believe, steps forward. We now have dozens of times fewer dead and wounded. However, Donbass is dying without Ukraine. The presence of occupying troops there kills technology, education, medicine, environmental disasters appear due to flooded mines, looting and metal-blasting factories that were there. The situation is terrible, so I speak fairly - Donbass is dying without Ukraine. Therefore, I believe that the United States of America can have a very strong influence. I believe that President Biden could strengthen our negotiations in the Norman format, again because he understands the issue of Ukraine and Russia well. Secondly, he spoke about security in Europe, and, thirdly, we believe that it is not enough to simply talk about the end of the war. And what to do afterwards? We need the reintegration of Donbass. And in order to reintegrate Donbass, strong companies, strong technologies, security and money are needed. And here, I believe, we cannot do it alone. And we see a free economic zone on the territory of Donbass, so that there would be certain preferences for business to enter. And the United States of America could play a key role here. Well, we understand that today the United States of America is the guarantor of security in the world, a serious strategic player, so such steps could accelerate the outcome of the war in Donbass and the beginning of major construction, major reintegration of Donbass.
There is one more case. I believe that the United States of America cannot be dispensed with in the matter of Crimea, because the issue of Crimea and its deoccupation is not on the agenda of the Normandy format and the Minsk agreements. For six years, this issue was in the air, and indeed, Europe and the United States of America optionally did everything possible, but the steps for deoccupation must be taken by the appropriate union of states, a union of leaders, in which a map of all steps for the deoccupation of the Crimean Peninsula will be determined. Now we are creating the "Crimean Platform" and, of course, we would like to see in it those countries that will be key players, key guarantors of the return and deoccupation of Crimea. The return of Crimea and our territorial integrity. And the USA could be a leader in this direction.
— You said that Biden has great experience with Russia and Ukraine, Eastern Europe. How useful could this experience be for Ukraine? Do you have an additional comment?— At some point, unfortunately, we lost the special representative for Ukraine in the USA, Kurt Volker, he took very important connecting steps and could communicate with both Ukraine and the Russian Federation and knew all the information firsthand. I believe that the position is lost, but there should be such a special representative or such a body. It is very important to choose a person who will take the necessary steps and who understands the Ukrainian mentality. It is important not to make a mistake in this personnel issue. Here, President Biden has the best chance, because he has worked a lot with Ukraine, he is a practitioner and understands the mentality, he understands the important points related to reforms. Knowing the reforms in Ukraine, he will understand and be able to distinguish real information from fakes. It is very important that relations between Ukraine and the USA do not break. It is important to understand what is really happening. And that's why it seems to me that this understanding by the new US President of the reality in Russia, Ukraine, and Europe will give a greater opportunity to solve all conflicting problems.
— Do you think that Turkey's intervention in the war in Karabakh, Maya Sandu's victory in Moldova and protests in Belarus are examples of Russia losing influence in the former Soviet republics?
— We understand this well, because we lived here, and we remember the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for many decades. And no one was happy when people died, ordinary citizens on both sides of this conflict. But it is impossible to compare the military conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan and between Ukraine and Russia, because we understand, for example, what different mentalities and different religions are. That's what's there. A complex conflict is based on this. As for us, our people who defend Ukraine in the Donbass speak both Russian and Ukrainian. There is no question of language here, people are fighting for the independence of their country. Then - in our country, people fight with people of the same religion. It also happens. Therefore, it is impossible to compare. This is tragic and funny - when Donbass was occupied, they said that the Russian language was being taken away from Donbass. This was simply a strong information attack by the Russian Federation. The example I gave you is when people speak Russian and defend the independence of Ukraine. So how can they take the Russian language away from Donbass?
I believe that Ukraine has not violated anything in its relations with the Russians. The world should long be liberal and resolve the issue in the legislative field, not with a machine gun in hand. I don't know about the weakening of Russia's influence. I will tell you as the subject of such a conflict, because I am the President of Ukraine and I see that they (representatives of the Russian Federation. — Red.), I see their presence. And they are also recognized as subjects — along with Ukraine — in the Minsk Agreements. And the subject of this war. For now, as long as they are recognized as subjects of war, I do not see, I do not observe what you are talking about.
Regarding the victory of Maia Sandu in the elections, I will tell you frankly, people, Moldova chooses whomever they want. But Ukraine could not give open support to any of the candidates before the elections. Before Maya Sandu became the President, she flew to Ukraine as the Prime Minister, and I met her and I know her position on Crimea, and to me her position on Ukraine as a whole, regarding the war in Donbas, is much more understandable than the position of the previous President Dodon. I was happy to meet Maya. I did not have more contacts with other leaders of power or former power in Moldova for obvious reasons, which I just explained to you. I support Maya, she knows it. I also told her this before the elections - whatever the result, we support you, I like Moldova as a whole with such a leader, and I wish it democratic development. Moldova deserves it.
— The question is, what if Russia pursues a more cautious policy, and because of this, an opportunity to achieve peace in the Donbass opens up? Do you see any changes that would show whether a window of opportunity will open in Donbass or not?
— All the conflicts that exist today in Europe, where one way or another there is a presence of the Russian Federation, I consider terrible and, of course, I very much wish for it to end. All these conflicts are an indicator of the fact that wherever the territory was "frozen" - this is Transnistria, this is Abkhazia, this is Donbass, this is Karabakh - all these territories have been losing in development and losing economically over the years. But the worst thing is that people lose. When I say that people lose, I also mean people living in these occupied territories. They lose because they break relations with the central part of their country. They are "in the air", they do not develop, they suffer, and the worst thing is that they simply live out life, not getting pleasure from it, and they condemn all subsequent generations to life. Life is isolated at a time when the modern world is wider and much more beautiful. Therefore, I believe that this whole direction has no effect in the future. But all these conflicts cannot be compared to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, because we are very big. Ukraine is very big. And the way we defend our country — at the very beginning, we showed that it is impossible to occupy Ukraine. Everyone will die here, but no one will give up the independence of our country.— I have a question about this. Are you ready to fulfill Russia's demands and change the Constitution, exclude NATO as a price for peace?
— There is nothing in the Minsk agreements about membership in NATO, there is nothing in the Norman format about membership in NATO. Regarding changes to the Constitution in the direction of decentralization, we say: this is in accordance with the Minsk agreements, we are ready for this. They will change the Constitution in the direction that we sometimes hear about in the media from the Russian Federation - here they know my position, I told Putin directly that I do not agree with this. I understand that we want separate powers, the right to vote, so that no one then speculates on language issues, so that the people of Donbass can speak as they want - please, for all these things, I believe that we should be as liberal as possible. All amendments to "Minsk" within the framework of decentralization in the Constitution - we do it. I told this to the President of the Russian Federation at a meeting in the Norman format. We will do it no matter what. We want local people to have more powers, more choice, so that they dispose of money, and not receive tasks from the central government, which are constantly descending. That's how we do it. If we want more preferences for Donbass in this direction, such compromises can be made - these are normal compromises, the war will not end without compromises, I understand that. But there must be logic everywhere. There should be logic in all actions, in all compromises. Logic and result.
— Will there be a big truce between Russia and the West leading to peace in Donbass, or can peace be achieved even if what some call the "new cold war" between the West and Russia continues? Is it possible to achieve peace in Ukraine and to what extent is it closely related that it cannot be achieved without global peace between the West and Russia?
— I don't really like to talk about global things. I want to explain my position. When we say that the United States of America will sit down at the table with the Russian Federation and they will agree on everything, on everything, I don't believe it. Because there are many different interests, and we must not forget that each small country has its independence and its desire. And the big players will never be able to agree on everything in general, because each country has its own "I". And I, the President of Ukraine, would not like any global players to agree on the peace in Donbass and the conditions of this world. It is important for us to be at this negotiating table, because without us it is impossible to reach an agreement. Because the subject of this agreement is Ukraine.
— I have one question about the vaccine. Negotiations on the purchase of the Pfizer vaccine - were they stopped due to the recent ban on the export of the drug from the USA? If the Russian vaccine "Sputnik" satisfies the requirements of Ukraine, will you allow its production on the territory of your country?
— Andrew, I will try to explain to you everything that is basically happening now with the vaccine. I think you know this question well, but I will say it because I am deeply engaged in it every day. I was faced with the fact that Ukraine has lost its position in the world and in Europe from the point of view of the priority of countries. We are not included in the list of countries that are the first to receive the vaccine. I don't know how many ten-year-olds have been lost since independence, but it is there and I recognize this fact. I struggle with this.
Therefore, here we must be, let's say, acrobats in politics, in order to somehow manage to get into the priority of countries, we must be very flexible, diplomatic. Of course, I would not like that, of course, any law that blocks the export of vaccines, I, as President, cannot support simply because it is another step towards the fact that we can be at the end of the vaccination queue, which means more Ukrainians will die. I cannot support any similar legislation of any country, even if it is our strategic partner, no matter what.
I believe that it is the USA and Great Britain today that could have a very strong influence on Ukraine being the priority of the European countries to receive the vaccine first.
I believe that this issue can become another geopolitical blow, this will be another strong information war from Russia, and here everything is already in the hands of the United States of America. Why? Because the "Sputnyk" vaccine is now being offered in the public and in the information space of Ukraine. For this purpose, the Russian Federation uses TV channels, in particular Ukrainian ones, which are recognized as allies of the Russian Federation's politics. Of course, it is impossible to explain to the Ukrainian society why if America and Europe do not give you the vaccine, you should not take it in Russia, to any person who is dying. The second thing is that we should not allow Ukraine to accept a Russian vaccine that has not passed all the tests. You and I have no real evidence that this vaccine has a XNUMX% positive effect. Moreover, I cannot take responsibility for a vaccine whose effects we do not know. Ukraine primarily bases its decision on choosing a safe vaccine.
— Are you ready to take "Sputnik" if it is safe?
- Everything is very simple. Ukraine will save its people, Ukraine will fight for our partners to give us a vaccine that is confirmed — Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca. This is what is confirmed. We understand that some of these companies have factories all over Europe and even in the Russian Federation, as far as I know, so the question here is primarily the quality of the vaccine.
- We discussed a lot. I am very grateful and glad that you took the time. Let's return to the situation with the post-Soviet countries. You are the main democratic leader in the post-Soviet space. Do you feel competition with Putin or the leaders of any other countries, for example, Georgia, Belarus, who strive for this? What do you see as your role in this territory?
— I would like us to end the war in Donbass. I think this will be a very serious step towards the end of similar conflicts in the post-Soviet space. I want to achieve this and I am making every effort to do so. I believe that my experience, in case of a positive result, and the experience of my team will be indispensable in the future. I think that this will be a very good help to other countries, because I understand all the nuances and details of how people suffer and where they need help, humanitarian steps. Because the war is with us, it is not somewhere.
In terms of leadership, I am very calm about it. I would like Ukraine to be the leader among these countries as a subject, as a country, as a strong state, as a transparent state without corruption. This would be, in my opinion, the greatest reward for me and for our people. This is more important than any ambition of any one president in the history of a great country.
— Are there any questions that I did not ask, or subjects that we did not discuss, that you consider important for the American audience from the point of view of the fact that our President will change soon?
— It seems to me that there are important things that we talked about very little during the meeting with Donald Trump. I hope that when I meet with Joe Biden, I will have the opportunity to discuss this fully and, most importantly, to implement it. I want our plans for the USA, primarily economic, to be implemented during my term and the term of the new US President. First of all, I would like to invite you to Ukraine. It seems to me that this is very important, because the President of the strategic partner in our country is very much expected.
Regarding economic things, of course, I would like American business to enter Ukraine in a powerful way. I would like us to feel like investors, and we are ready to help. I am personally ready to help, as they say in our country, the crown will not fall from me. I am ready to talk with any investors. All: in energy, in the financial sector, in the direction of agriculture. Plus, IT would really like some things that are already in the United States of America to appear in Ukraine as symbols.
I would very much like that, in addition to the fundamental things in industry, in mechanical engineering, we advanced from the point of view of our relations in tourism, from the point of view of the visa-free regime with the USA, so that our people could travel safely - at least those who work perfectly in Ukraine, of the United States and have common companies, joint businesses. Let's start at least with this. I think it would open the door to improving our relationship. I would like to build Hollywood in Ukraine, I think it's cool. There are very good sites in Europe - in Prague, in Hungary. Ukraine, believe me, is rich enough to have such a platform here. That's why we voted for the law on ribaits. I think that this is a place for investments, advertising and other shootings are also a good direction. I would like Disneyland to appear in Ukraine. I would really like to. I really believe that our children deserve this, but not everyone can afford to fly to the United States of America or Paris. It seems to me that there are many plans.
