Ukraine, controversy over spending on culture, minister Tkachenko resigns

The Verkhovna Rada,Ukraine’s parliament, today accepted the resignation of Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko. The announcement was made by an MP, Yaroslav Zhelezniak, who spread the news on his Telegram channel, which was picked up by Ukrainian agencies. The minister had submitted a letter of resignation last July 21 (initially his decision was rejected), due to misunderstandings with President Volodymyr Zelens’kyj concerning spending on culture. Apparently it all stemmed from one of the videos that Zelens’kyj regularly posts on his channels: in this video, published on the evening of July 20, the president said, as reported by the Ukrainian News agency, that “funding museums, cultural centers, periodicals, etc. is important, but now there are other priorities.” According to Zelens’kyj, spending, in wartime, should focus on defense, adding that this “is a matter of course.” Zelens’kyj also reported that he had a conversation with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, during which the idea of shifting resources from other sectors onto defense was considered, and of allocating resources to culture not from state funds, but found outside the budget.

By the next day, Tkachenko had submitted his letter of resignation. “This evening,” he wrote on his Telegram account, “I took my letter of resignation to the Prime Minister, due to a wave of misunderstanding about the importance of culture during the war. Only then was I surprised by the President’s statement on the same issue. Culture during war is important because it is a war not only for territories, but for people, and people are our memory, history, language, creativity despite the war, heritage and the past for the sake of the future. Both private and budget funds during the war for culture are no less important than those for drones, because culture is the shield of our identity and our borders. And this is my fundamental position.”

At the moment it is not yet known who will replace Oleksandr Tkachenko. Zhelezniak, in his update, made it known that the issue of appointing a new culture minister is not on the agenda today, and probably will not be this week either.

Ukraine, controversy over spending on culture, minister Tkachenko resigns

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