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PP RUEHDBU
DE RUEHKV #0865/01 1411634
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P 211634Z MAY 09
FM AMEMBASSY KYIV
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KYIV 000865 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR, EUR/UMB, EEB/OMA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/20/2019 
TAGS: EFIN EREL ETRD PGOV PREL XH UP
SUBJECT: WESTERN UKRAINE VIEWS ON ECONOMY, EUROPE, AND 
YATSENYUK 
 
REF: A. KYIV 605 
     ¶B. KYIV 590 
 
Classified By: AMBASSADOR WILLIAM B. TAYLOR, REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D) 
 
¶1.  (C) Summary.  Remittances from abroad are falling and 
banks are still shaky, but the economy in western Ukraine has 
stabilized in recent weeks, the Ambassador heard in 
Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi on May 13-15.  On his final 
trip outside Kyiv before departing post, the Ambassador met 
with governors and mayors, toured a gas transport and storage 
facility, and took the political pulse of what is arguably 
Ukraine's most Europe-oriented population.  Local leaders 
told us that flood damage required greater central government 
funding, and that Romania was posing potential trans-boundary 
problems.  The Ambassador heard that hometown favorite 
Arseniy Yatsenyuk will likely receive significant support in 
the upcoming Presidential vote, while the recent success of 
the nationalist Svoboda party in Ternopil oblast council 
elections "by no means shows the real picture" in the west. 
End summary. 
 
Regional Economy 
---------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) On the back of remittances from young adults, who 
have left behind what one observer called an "unruly, 
parentless generation of children," western Ukraine's 
economic growth rates are top in the country, according to 
Chernivtsi Governor Volodymyr Kulish.  Both Kulish and his 
fellow Governor Mykola Palichuk of Ivano-Frankivsk (I-F) told 
the Ambassador that Western Union and bank transfers are 
fueling the construction industry and provide revenue for 
local budgets.  However, Governor Kulish said that 
remittances are down 40 percent this year, as many from the 
Bukovina region, which straddles the Ukrainian-Romanian 
border, have returned from abroad due to decreased demand for 
labor in Western and Central European countries.  Kulish said 
there was a net inflow of migrants into his region for the 
first time in years. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) U.S. observers we spoke with confirmed that both 
towns and villages in western Ukraine continue to see new 
multi-story houses built amidst dachas and garden plots, 
albeit more slowly than in recent years.  Such homes are both 
a store of wealth and a mark of prestige for workers sending 
money from abroad, even if they have no access to electricity 
or running water.  Governor Kulish stated that there had been 
19 percent growth in the construction sector in 2008, with no 
fall recorded thus far in 2009.  Very little rural housing 
development had been driven by bank loans, he said, as 
property owners and builders operate on a "pay-as-you-go" 
basis. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) I-F's Governor Palichuk commented that significant 
problems remain in the banking sector, where loans are not 
being issued and trust has not been fully restored after 
panicky depositors rushed to withdraw savings in January and 
February.  He expressed concern that consumption would 
continue to fall, with urban dwellers unable to finance new 
cars, housing, or purchases of durable goods.  Palichuk told 
the Ambassador that he had intervened personally as a 
"guarantor" between banks and enterprises to secure loan 
prolongations, maintain low interest rates, and extend grace 
periods, ultimately allowing businesses to stop short of 
firing employees.  But he worried that with home safes sold 
out in stores and depositors only interested in very 
short-term deposits, the local banking sector's problems were 
far from resolved. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) I-F's Palichuk stated that his oblast had overcome 
a sharp decline in industrial production, in part due to 
Presidential intervention.  Palichuk credited Yushchenko with 
brokering an arrangement with an importer in Azerbaijan to 
buy cement from the largest plant in Ivano-Frankivsk, which 
had stood idle in the first weeks of 2009.  Also heading a 
relatively non-industrialized oblast, Governor Kulish said 
that over 70 percent of families in the Chernivtsi region 
rely on land plots bigger than a hectare (2.5 acres) for 
sustenance and small-scale trade.  Kulish hoped to assist 
farmers by attracting investment in food processing for 
 
KYIV 00000865  002 OF 003 
 
 
export to Europe. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Palichuk said that the I-F oblast had no public 
arrears owed to teachers or hospital workers, due to "manual 
management" of budget expenditures.  He described a fiscal 
scenario where local governments were "on the edge" of not 
meeting non-discretionary payments and he confirmed that the 
oblast was spending no money this year on capital projects. 
Kulish stated that Chernivtsi had over 2 million UAH 
($260,000) in public sector wage arrears.  Other observers we 
spoke with indicated that employees in Chernivtsi oblast had 
also seen a rise in private sector wage arrears and that 
there had been talk about whether future payments would be 
made in alcohol or in-kind services. 
 
Gas Transit and Storage 
----------------------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) The Ambassador visited the Bogorodchany gas 
transportation hub, a critical way station for gas shipments 
to Europe located 20 kilometers outside of Ivano-Frankivsk. 
The hub consists of an underground gas storage facility 
(UGS), five gas compressor stations, a gas distribution 
station, and a currently unused gas conditioning complex that 
had been built during the Soviet era to improve the quality 
of exported gas.  Deputy Director of Ukrtransgaz's local 
subsidiary Prykarpattiatransgaz (PTG), Yevtakhiy Kovaliv, 
said the system handles 80-90 percent of all Russian gas 
transit to Europe.  According to Kovaliv, there had not been 
a single transit disruption via spurs into Hungary, Slovakia, 
Romania, and Moldova that could be attributed to Ukraine. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Bogorodchany compressor stations can ship up to 240 
million cubic meters of gas per day, but they are currently 
running at 40 percent capacity, due to decreased downstream 
demand in Europe.  The hub's UGS is actively pumping excess 
gas into natural basins over 1000 meters deep that can be 
extracted during the winter peak consumption period. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) PTG experts told the Ambassador that they had been 
surprised by Gazprom's decision to shut off supplies during 
the January gas crisis.  The abrupt fall in pressure forced 
technicians to design and implement an emergency plan to 
reverse gas flows, ultimately supplying all industrial and 
household demand in Ukraine.  Prior to the January crisis, 
the last time gas flowed eastward was in the 1980s, before 
local fields ran dry and when Russian gas fields in Siberia 
came fully online. 
 
Flood Relief 
------------ 
 
¶10.  (SBU) I-F Mayor Viktor Anushkevychus told us that the 
city had provided an adequate response to the summer 2008 
flooding and had "liquidated" the problem.  His staff was now 
attending to future flood prevention, but the city was not 
able to finance the cost of needed dam reinforcements.  Both 
the city ($460,000) and the oblast ($15.8 million) still owed 
construction companies considerable sums, but promised 
assistance from the central government had not been 
forthcoming.  I-F Governor Palichuk corroborated the mayor's 
story, adding that the GOU did not budget flood relief and 
reconstruction funds for 2009. 
 
Concerns of Romanian Nationalism 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶11.  (C) Chernivtsi Governor Kulish told the Ambassador that 
he had noticed a recent regression in relations with Romania 
(Ref A).  Whereas he had once met frequently with Romanian 
senators and governors representing neighboring districts, 
his invitations for talks had gone unanswered over the past 
4-5 months.  Kulish said that Romania had officially fostered 
a simplified citizenship process for Bukovinans, and that 
roughly 40,000 passports had been issued, demanded by 
Ukrainian citizens mostly to facilitate cross-border 
commerce.  Kulish said he did not rule out the possibility 
that Romania could use its foothold to support what he called 
a trans-boundary autonomy movement for a greater Romania, 
especially in light of recent events in Moldova. 
 
 
KYIV 00000865  003 OF 003 
 
 
Political Winds of Change? 
-------------------------- 
 
¶12.  (SBU) Kulish explained that Chernivtsi's political 
stability had allowed for unity across party lines, which he 
said reflected the sentiments of the local population. 
Citizens in western Ukraine share aspirations for EU and NATO 
membership, said I-F Mayor Anushkevychus, noting that 
"right-center" parties with "coinciding views on major 
questions" had a strong majority.  I-F's Governor Palichuk 
said that the President, Prime Minister Tymoshenko, and 
former Rada Speaker Yatsenyuk enjoyed similar levels of 
popularity. 
 
¶13.  (SBU) Echoing what Lviv Governor Kmit had previously 
told the Ambassador (Ref B), I-F Governor Palichuk stated 
emphatically that the March 15 victory of nationalist Svoboda 
party in the Ternopil oblast elections "by no means shows the 
real picture" of regional political dynamics.  Palichuk 
recalled that Yatsenyuk and Tymoshenko-affiliated parties did 
not participate in the Ternopil polling and that BYuT 
representatives had tried unsuccessfully to cancel the snap 
elections.  Palichuk noted that "people will support 
something new and with good quality" but have no interest in 
right-wing slogans of Svoboda. 
 
¶14.  (SBU) Several young Chernivtsi politicians pointed out 
their personal and generational ties to Yatsenyuk, whose 
rhetoric and fresh face were compared to President Obama. 
The oblast head of Yatsenyuk's NGO Front of Changes, Oleksiy 
Kaspruk, said that an eponymous party soon would be formed in 
parallel with the NGO, and that Yatsenyuk had told him the 
party and NGO would co-exist with separate political and 
social goals.  Oblast council Party of Regions representative 
Oleg Ungurian emphasized his longstanding friendship with 
Yatsenyuk, but stated that each was "working in opposite 
directions."  Ungurian commented that Yatsenyuk was 
"excellent, clearly a stand out" as a student at the 
Chernivtsi university, but that Yatsenyuk was making the same 
mistakes as Yushchenko, Tymoshenko, and Yanukovich by forming 
a personality-driven party supported by business tycoons. 
United Center oblast council representative Mykhailo Senychak 
said that he lived 30 meters from Yatsenyuk's parents and 
went to school with Yatsenyuk's family members, but that he 
would "wish Yatsenyuk success in five years" when he would be 
more seasoned. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶15.  (SBU) The entrepreneurial dynamism and pro-European 
sentiment is palpable in western Ukraine, with construction 
visible in the cities and countryside, coffee houses full of 
students, and European Union flags proudly displayed and 
dreams of NATO accession unabashedly uttered.  Unlike other 
parts of Ukraine, the biggest topic of conversation was not 
the economic crisis, but politics, and whether Yatsenyuk had 
what it takes to win the presidency.  Among those who know 
him best, true believers outnumber the doubters, but perhaps 
only just. 
TAYLOR