Petition urged Zelenskyy to veto asset declaration bill
A look back at 11 September 2023, as public pressure over delayed asset disclosure built in Kyiv and talks on Black Sea grain followed in Sochi.
What was the state of Ukraine's public debate on 11 September 2023? Days earlier, on 8 September, tens of thousands of Ukrainians had signed a petition asking President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to veto legislation on asset declarations, and the question was still unresolved as the new week began.
Critics argued that the bill would delay the requirement for officials to declare their assets publicly. In their view, that delay could stop officials from being held accountable, and it was the basis of the petition's call for a veto.
Grain talks in Sochi
On the international side, the Russian and Turkish presidents, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, met in Sochi on 6 September 2023. They discussed reviving the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which would allow grain to cross the Black Sea again.
The initiative was an agreement between Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations. It was signed in Istanbul on 22 July 2022 for 120 days. It set up procedures to export grain safely from certain ports, with a joint coordination and inspection centre in Turkey and the UN as secretariat. It was created after the February 2022 invasion halted maritime grain shipments from Ukraine, which raised world food prices and brought the threat of famine in lower-income countries.
Voting in occupied areas
Russia also reported, on 8 September, that its air defence systems had shot down two Ukrainian drones attempting to attack a polling station in Skadovsk, Kherson Oblast, while voting was under way in the 2023 Russian elections.
