Volodymyr Zelenskiy declared his personal income for the first time since the outbreak of war with Russia, as part of his effort to increase transparency in his government.

In 2021, the year before Russia invaded Ukraine, Zelenskiy and his family reported income of 10.8 million hryvnia ($285,000), down 12 million hryvnia from the previous year, even as his income was boosted by the sale of $142,000 of government bonds, according to a statement on his website.

In 2022, the first year of the Russian invasion, the Zelenskiy family’s income fell further to 3.7 million hryvnia as he earned less income from renting real estate he owned because of the hostilities.

Even as the war allowed Ukrainian officials to withhold revealing sensitive personal information, Zelenskiy pushed to make them publicly declare assets. Increasing transparency and tackling graft are necessary for his country to ensure continued financial aid from its western allies, even as more than $100 billion of funds are held up due to political maneuvering inside US and EU.

  • NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    Setting aside that Israel is fundamentally an Apartheid state (that’s kinda the sales pitch when you say “Jewish state”) and therefore shouldn’t exist, that’s not what I’m talking about. He’s been pretty loud about his support for Israel’s war when he could’ve just stayed silent.

    • Argonne@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Why don’t you look at Israels demographic before calling it an apartheid? By that definition most middle east countries are apartheid

      • NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        I’m… Not sure what you’re even trying to say. Israel’s sales pitch is a state where Jews are superior to none-Jews. That assumption is in every fabric of Israeli society. By your definition South Africa wouldn’t have been Apartheid because they had black people.

        • Argonne@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I’m not sure what you are trying to say. Regular people don’t care if you are Jewish or not.

          Israel is a parliamentary democracy with a multiparty system and independent institutions that guarantee political rights and civil liberties for most of the population. Although the judiciary is comparatively active in protecting minority rights, the political leadership and many in society have discriminated against Arab and other ethnic or religious minority populations, resulting in systemic disparities in areas including infrastructure, criminal justice, education, and economic opportunity.

          https://freedomhouse.org/country/israel

          This is no different than Black people in the US. No one calls USA an apartheid state?

          Also you conveniently ignored my point about the rest of the middle east

          • NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social
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            9 months ago

            It’s more like pre-CRA America, and I’d definitely entertain the argument of calling that an Apartheid state against black people or native Americans.

            Also Palestinians in Israel (not the West Bank, not East Jerusalem, Israel proper) are still having their lands stolen by Israeli authorities, and are forbidden from living in certain places, along with a whole host of other injustices.

            And, more importantly, people calling Israel an Apartheid state are usually referring to its occupied territories, while everything you just said doesn’t apply as soon as you step into East Jerusalem, let alone the West Bank.

            • Argonne@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              Fine, but with that definition most middle eastern countries and many in Africa would be considered apartheid states as well. Even Russia is bordering on Apartheid with the way it treats Chenchens, Rurals and deep eastern settlements. China is apartheid on Uygurs. Turkiye on Kurds and Armenia. My point is that there seems to be a huge double standard criticizing Israel for Apartheid while not criticizing many other countries for it. I’m fine with blaming Israel for it as long as other countries get blamed for it. I don’t see anyone in the Middle East raging at China for the way they crack down on Muslims in a much worse way than Israel has done

              We expect more from Israel because it’s a western country but at the end of the day they are just another country in the middle east. They have their own version of religious fanaticism same as other Arabs with their own. I’m tired of all the news from Israel while literally half the world’s population is struggling to survive. It feels like a giant class and race war to distract us

              • NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social
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                9 months ago

                Fine, but with that definition most middle eastern countries and many in Africa would be considered apartheid states as well.

                How so?

                We expect more from Israel because it’s a western country but at the end of the day they are just another country in the middle east. They have their own version of religious fanaticism same as other Arabs with their own.

                Most Arab countries committing genocide rightfully get fucked pretty hard for it (unless they’re doing it on behalf of the West like in Yemen).