Asset declarations and grain embargoes: Ukraine's politics on 14 September 2023
A look back at two pressures on Kyiv in mid-September 2023: a public campaign over officials' asset declarations and a Polish call to extend a ban on Ukrainian farm imports.
What was weighing on Ukrainian politics on 14 September 2023? Two separate pressures, one from citizens at home and one from a neighbouring government, had been building in the days before.
A petition on transparency
On 8 September 2023, tens of thousands of Ukrainians signed a petition asking President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to veto legislation on asset declarations. Critics of the law believed it could make it harder to hold officials accountable, because it delayed the requirement that they publicly declare their assets.
The scale of the response stood out: the petition's signatories numbered in the tens of thousands, and their request was aimed directly at the president, who could still veto the measure.
Poland and the grain ban
On 13 September 2023, the day before the date covered here, Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called on the European Union to extend an embargo on imports of Ukrainian corn, wheat, sunflower and rapeseed. The appeal concerned the four commodities named in his call.
Taken together, the two items show Kyiv facing scrutiny on different fronts in the same week: domestic demands for openness from officials, and a neighbour's push to keep restrictions on Ukrainian agricultural exports in place.
