2023-07-21 00:37:25
The Ukrainian Minister of Culture, Olexander Tkachenko, has resigned following dissatisfaction with the way state funds are handled. There had been “a wave of misunderstandings regarding the importance of culture in times of war,” Tkachenko explained on Telegram late Thursday evening. After that, he was surprised by a statement by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on this subject.
Zelenskyi said in his evening video address on Thursday that he had asked Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal to consider replacing Tkachenko. Ukrainian media had previously reported that the culture minister wanted to spend 500 million hryvnia (around 12 million euros) to complete a national museum commemorating the Ukrainian victims of the Holodomor genocide in the 1930s.
On Thursday evening, on his Telegram channel, Tkachenko defended spending on culture even in times of war. “Culture during the war is important because it is not only a war for territories but also for people,” Tkachenko wrote there. Funds for culture are no less important during the war than funds for drones, “because culture is the protective shield of our identity and our borders,” said the politician.
Zelenskyj had said that “in times of war like this, the main attention of the state, and thus also of state resources, should be devoted to defence”. Museums and other cultural areas are important, “but right now we have other priorities”. After around 17 months of Russian war of aggression, Ukrainian society understands that savings are currently being made on things that are not urgently needed. Zelenskyj also instructed the government to develop alternative financing options for cultural and other projects.
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