Grievances of people against authorities absolutely fair

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko believes that the grievances of Ukrainian citizens against the authorities, in particular, regarding the relatively slow pace of reforms, living standards, corruption and problems in the judiciary, are absolutely fair.
"I heard the message of the society in the first round of the elections on March 31, 2019. People are not happy, because the reforms are moving too slowly, the living standards do not satisfy a larger part of Ukrainian citizens, corruption is invincible, it is difficult to seek justice in the judicial branch. People’s grievances against the authorities are absolutely fair," Poroshenko said on the Freedom of Speech program in the air of ICTV channel.

The Head of State thanked three million citizens, who had voted for him in the first round, and noted that he was ready to listen to the criticism of those, who had not supported him.

"I understand and thank you for the message sent to the authorities: do something, make changes, we are not going to endure it in this format. I want to repeat: friends, I thank you for this. It is a very strong message that motivates the authorities to change. For me, it is probably the most painful, but important lesson I learned from the first round of elections. We need to change our personnel policy, we must show greater openness, hold the dialogue starting with civil society and activists and ending with understanding the problems of an ordinary citizen. We must take a series of measures that would help people find the answers that satisfy them. This is a conclusion I made from the first round of elections," the President explained.

It is also important to continue to strengthen the security and defense sector, he added.

“Ukrainian President must be strong, competent and professional because his main function, being the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, is security and defense of the state. Every citizen of Ukraine should feel safe. Not because our northern neighbor will extend mercy. In 2014, the mercy was not extended to us, and Russian troops occupied Crimea against the background of non-alignment. Since then, more than 13,000 Ukrainians have been killed as a result of Russian aggression. We must continue to strengthen the defense and security sector. We must preserve and expand the international coalition, which is formed in support of Ukraine," Petro Poroshenko said.

At the same time, he added that it was important for the continuation of Ukraine’s European integration.

"We are all citizens of Ukraine. The absolute majority of us love Ukraine above all. So our common task is to protect Ukraine from the ruin, to prevent the weakening of our country so that we could continue this historic way of returning Ukraine to the family of European nations," Poroshenko emphasized.