{"id":1254561,"date":"2025-07-01T19:41:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T16:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/the-union-of-the-sword-and-the-plough-why-did-bankova-create-the-ministry-of-unity\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T09:46:29","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T06:46:29","slug":"the-union-of-the-sword-and-the-plough-why-did-bankova-create-the-ministry-of-unity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/the-union-of-the-sword-and-the-plough-why-did-bankova-create-the-ministry-of-unity\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;The Sword Meets the Plough: Why Did Bankova Establish the Ministry of National Unity?&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The true purpose behind the creation of the Ministry of Unity was to mobilize voters abroad and allocate budget funds. However, following a corruption scandal, Bankova moved to quietly shut down the ministry \u2014 while the government itself has effectively become an extension of the President\u2019s Office, resembling a modern-day \u201cUnion of the Sword and the Plough.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This opinion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-79psdmao0c\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was expressed<\/a> on the air of &#8220;Pryamyi&#8221; by political scientist Volodymyr Tsybulko.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey still hoped to control millions of votes from Ukrainians abroad for electoral purposes. That\u2019s why they set up such a network of representative offices \u2014 they were looking for a mechanism for parallel mobilization. The idea was to open a foreign branch of the ministry in a given country, which would oversee the local Ukrainian community with the eventual aim of establishing a polling station,\u201d Tsybulko noted.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\ud83e\udd2f \u0421\u043f\u043b\u0438\u0432\u043b\u043e, \u0445\u0442\u043e \u043d\u0430\u0441\u043f\u0440\u0430\u0432\u0434\u0456 \u0432\u0437\u044f\u0432 \u0432\u043b\u0430\u0434\u0443 \u0432 \u041a\u0430\u0431\u043c\u0456\u043d\u0456! \u0404\u0440\u043c\u0430\u043a \u0437\u0430\u0434\u043e\u0432\u043e\u043b\u0435\u043d\u0438\u0439! \u0428\u043c\u0438\u0433\u0430\u043b\u044c \u043e\u0431\u0440\u0430\u0437\u0438\u0432\u0441\u044f \/ \u0426\u0418\u0411\u0423\u041b\u042c\u041a\u041e\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-79psdmao0c?start=50&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n\t\t<aside class=\"shortcode-also\" data-title=\"Read also\" >\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/ritual-addition-to-bankova-why-did-the-authorities-undertake-changes-in-the-government\/\">Ritual addition to Bankova: why did the authorities undertake changes in the government?<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\n<p data-start=\"102\" data-end=\"325\">However, according to him, once the timing of the elections became \u201centirely uncertain\u201d and a criminal case was opened against Unity Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, Bankova moved to quietly shut down the ministry\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"327\" data-end=\"691\">\u201cChernyshov was not appointed by chance. He was intended to be a key figure in Zelenskyy\u2019s electoral strategy. Certain financial resources were meant to be channelled to secure votes \u2014 especially from Ukrainian refugees abroad. But neither objective was achieved. They overestimated their capabilities,\u201d the political analyst explained.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"693\" data-end=\"938\">Overall, in his view, the current Cabinet of Ministers has long since lost its independence and is now directly controlled by Bankova Street \u2014 effectively turning into a modern-day version of Ostap Bender\u2019s \u2018Union of the Sword and the Plough\u2019.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"940\" data-end=\"1485\">\u201cIn essence, today\u2019s Cabinet simply executes instructions from Bankova. Yet it was meant to be an independent body, guided by the position of the parliamentary majority. But there is no formalized majority. There\u2019s only voting. And let me remind you \u2014 for the past two years, not a single bill has passed with votes from \u2018Servant of the People\u2019 alone, even though they claim to hold a mono-majority. Instead, votes are gathered from oligarchic parliamentary groups \u2014 and those votes are, in one way or another, paid for,\u201d the studio guest added.<\/p>\n\t\t<aside class=\"shortcode-also\" data-title=\"Read also\" data-right>\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/bread-and-spectacles-from-bankova-should-we-expect-elections-in-ukraine\/\">\u201cBread and Spectacles\u201d from Bankova: Should we expect elections in Ukraine?<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\n<p>&#8220;That\u2019s why we now have this \u2018Union of the Sword and the Plough\u2019, which has completely distorted the Constitution. Government reports to parliament have become a farce. Ministers sit there smirking, pretending to answer questions from MPs. For instance, there was a day when Chernyshov, Umerov, and another minister were all being questioned \u2014 yet none of them showed up. That\u2019s three ministers ignoring Government Day. They know everything has been turned on its head. It\u2019s no longer ministers answering to parliament \u2014 it\u2019s ministers instructing MPs on how to vote. That, in a nutshell, is the mindset of today\u2019s government<strong data-start=\"97\" data-end=\"728\">,&#8221;<\/strong> political analyst Volodymyr Tsybulko concluded.<\/p>\n<p>As a reminder, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor&#8217;s Office <a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/chernyshov-v-epitsentri-koruptsiynoho-skandalu-u-vitseprem-ier-ministra-provely-obshuky\/\">conducted searches at the residence of the current Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov<\/a>. Subsequently, the NABU and the SAP <a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/shostyy-fihurant-koruptsiynoi-skhemy-ministru-chernyshovu-povidomyly-pro-pidozru\/\">informed him of suspicion<\/a> of abuse of office and obtaining illegal benefits.<\/p>\n<p>As the investigation established, officials of the Ministry of Regional Development under the leadership of Chernyshov created conditions for Kopystyra to obtain a land plot in Kyiv for the construction of a residential complex in 2021-2022. The land was valued almost five times cheaper than the market value, which could have caused losses to the state of more than UAH 1 billion.<\/p>\n<p>On June 27, the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court <a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/zastava-bilsh-nizh-120-milyoniv-hryven-sud-obrav-zapobizhnyy-zakhid-ministru-chernyshovu\/\">chose a preventive measure<\/a> for the official. At the same time, in the scandalous corruption case of a billion hryvnias, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov who is called one of President Zelensky&#8217;s closest associates, is being asked for<a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/smishna-zastava-dlia-chernyshova-proty-miliardnoi-zaruchnykam-fleshky-fsb\/\">\u00a0bail of 120 million hryvnias without restriction of liberty<\/a>. Meanwhile, former employees of the Probation Service, from whom false testimony against Petro Poroshenko is being demanded, were imprisoned in a pre-trial detention center with a total bail of 1.2 billion hryvnias &#8211; although they did not cause any damage to the state.<\/p>\n<p>Also, follow <strong>\u201cPryamyi\u201d<\/strong> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/prm_ua\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Twitter<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/+rtV4dxYu2_cyNjVi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Telegram<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The true purpose behind the creation of the Ministry of Unity was to mobilize voters abroad and allocate budget funds. However, following a corruption scandal, Bankova moved to quietly shut down the ministry \u2014 while the government itself has effectively become an extension of the President\u2019s Office, resembling a modern-day \u201cUnion of the Sword and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":1254551,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76871,76872,76885],"class_list":["post-1254561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1254561"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1254717,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254561\/revisions\/1254717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1254551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1254561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1254561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}