Mayor Of Kiev: Order Has Been Restored And Reforms Have Been Enacted

READY TO WORK: In less than a year, order has been restored and reforms enacted to maintain in Kiev a free and fair business environment. Photo: Vincent Mundy/Bloomberg News

Vitaly Klitchko, Wall Street Journal: Welcome Back to Kiev

In less than a year, order has been restored and reforms enacted to maintain in Kiev a free and fair business environment.

This great city is open for business. Anyone who pays attention to the news might read this statement and wonder if it’s an outdated April 1 gag. After all, Kiev is the capital of Ukraine, which is enmeshed in a war with Russia. But Kiev’s revival is no joke, and bold businesses understand that getting in early and lending us a shoulder as we push back our challenges is the essence of opportunity.

When I was elected mayor nearly a year ago, Kiev was in shambles. We had just overthrown a corrupt autocrat in the Euro Maidan movement. Central Kiev had been in flames in February 2014, as snipers picked off innocent civilians and protesters tore up the streets, built barricades and set tires afire to defend their turf.

Yet today, if you were to stroll across Maidan, only the memorial signs and flowers for the fallen would tell the story of what happened. In a very short period, we came together, cleaned up the rubble and restored order to Kiev.

WNU Editor: Last year I had the equivalent of about $6000 US in Ukrainian hryvnia in my bank account in Kiev. Today .... if I wanted to convert it back to US dollars .... I would only get a very small fraction of that. So no .... everything is not back to normal in Kiev. In fact .... even the Kyiv editorial board knows that the streets of Kiev are getting dangerous with each passing day.