What the Israel trade deal signing meant on 7 August 2019
A look back at the day the Ukrainian president signed a free trade ratification law, as news of soldiers' deaths in Donetsk Oblast had just emerged.
What did the signing of a trade law say about Ukrainian priorities on 7 August 2019? On that day, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law ratifying the free trade zone agreement between Ukraine and Israel.
The step was a formal one: with the president's signature, the ratification law was complete. It was a piece of ordinary state business, carried out while the country remained at war in the east.
The day before, on 6 August 2019, four soldiers of the Ukrainian Ground Forces were killed in an attack by pro-Russian separatists near the village of Pavlopil in Donetsk Oblast. The two items sat side by side in the news record of those days: a trade agreement moving toward implementation, and a front line that continued to claim lives.
For readers looking back, the pairing is a reminder that Ukrainian public life ran on several tracks at once. Lawmaking and foreign economic ties went on, while the war in Donbass kept its toll on soldiers.
