Speech of the newly appointed Minister of Internal Affairs Denis Monastyrskyi in the Verkhovna Rada
Dear colleagues! Dear Ukrainian people! Today is a very important and important day for me. My candidacy has been proposed for the post of Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. I'm on the President's team, and I've been with him since the first days. He went with the President's team in the first twenty to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. So, first of all, I want to thank the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky for his trust.
I have devoted a significant part of my life to law-making in the case of reforming the law enforcement judicial system. For almost two years I was elected to the post of Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Law Enforcement Activities. During this time, we have developed and the Verkhovna Rada adopted 48 laws in the field of criminal justice, for which I sincerely thank you, my colleagues. I especially want to thank the members of my committee. I am convinced that we will continue fruitful cooperation in the future.
My main priority as Minister will be the security of citizens, the state and increasing the level of trust of society in law enforcement agencies.
I want to reach out to the police and pay my respects to them. I respect all of you who have officer honor and dignity. But I will fight mercilessly with those who, contrary to the oath, use their authority for their own enrichment and violate the rights of the people.
The work of police officers cannot be compared with the work of civil servants, because sometimes a policeman can go home in the morning and never return alive. During the years of independence, 1 thousand 697 employees of the internal affairs bodies died, and we should all remember this.
That is why the issue of protecting labor and social rights of police officers, increasing labor expenses will be one of the priorities in my work, and here I will need the support of both the President and the Prime Minister, and most importantly, your dear colleagues.
A few words about the main directions, principles and priorities of my work as Minister of the Interior. I plan to focus a lot of attention on the fight against organized crime, the so-called “wills in the law” and criminal authorities. It is because of them that a significant number of serious and especially serious crimes are committed. I guarantee that the decisions of the National Security Council and the President on sanctions against the leaders of criminal groups will be strictly implemented in full.
The face of the National Police is 17,000 patrol police officers. It is they who come to the aid of those who suffer from criminals or need help. The development and improvement of the patrol police will be one of my top priorities. I guarantee that the patrols will continue to prosecute judges, prosecutors and people's deputies for administrative offenses, but only within the framework of the law. For every case of violation of human rights or gross disregard for its dignity, there will necessarily be a reaction.
The security of the country begins with security on every street and square in every city and village of Ukraine. Taking the opportunity, from this large podium I address the mayors of cities, the heads of AHs and deputies of local councils. If you want to make your city and village safe, allocate more money to purchase and install video surveillance systems. The more video cameras on the streets of cities and villages of Ukraine, the safer the citizens of Ukraine will feel. And today, thanks to the network of video cameras, the most crimes are revealed precisely on hot trails.
I also see it as my duty to continue to implement the Community Police Officer project and the Community Policing approach. The essence of which is to establish a new quality of relations between the police, the community and local authorities, where everyone is aware of the responsibility for their own safety, and the police in their activities are based on the needs of citizens. The family doctor should take care of the health of each family, and the community police officer should take care of safety in every home.
Last year, 3454 people died on the roads of Ukraine, of which 169 were children. This is many times more than on the roads of European countries and this is a shame. Road safety will be my personal priority, so I will continue to develop the system of automatic fixation of traffic rules, the implementation of modern traffic control technologies. I have a dream that every 5 years the mortality on the roads will decrease by half, all the way to zero.
Ukrainian roads, which are now being extensively reconstructed within the framework of the President's “Big Construction” program, should be not only beautiful, but also safe. Together with the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov, we will not allow the destruction of Ukrainian roads due to trucks that go with terrible overloads. Fines for overloading will be paid not only by carriers, but also by the real culprits of overloading, customers of such transportation. We will not allow anyone to destroy Ukrainian roads, which are now being rebuilt for billions of hryvnias of Ukrainian taxpayers.
Another priority in my work as Minister of the Interior, I see a greater level of digitalization of all areas of work of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In this matter, I count on the sincere support of Mikhail Fedorov.
Prevention, prevention and punishment of domestic violence, protection of the rights of children and minors will be one of my priorities in the work of the Minister. As recent opinion polls show, more than 70 percent of all cases of violence and a third of all crimes against property and health are committed by persons addicted to drug use. Therefore, one of the priorities of my activity will be to combat and prevent the spread of drugs and help in the rehabilitation of our fellow citizens who have committed crimes after unfortunately becoming drug addicts.
I want to emphasize that justice, protection of human rights and interests of victims are impossible without high-quality and honest work of the Ukrainian court. I believe and hope that the laws on the reform of the WRP, the WCC, which you and I have recently adopted will unlock systemic judicial proceedings. Cases in the courts should not be considered for many years beyond reasonable deadlines, as is often the case now.
One of the signs of statehood is a reliable and unbreakable border of Ukraine. Therefore, one of the main tasks in the field of reform of the State Border Service, I see the construction of a modern and efficiently equipped state border around the entire perimeter of the state.
Border guards in the 21st century should not patrol the state border on foot. Who are the first visitors of our country to see? Of course, border guards. Therefore, I will make every effort to ensure that they receive decent pay and proper working conditions, in order to always greet the guests of Ukraine with a smile. Well, the queues at the borders in the coming years should be a thing of the past.
The National Guard is one of the pillars of Ukrainian statehood and internal stability. The National Guard is an important, paramount state institution, because it is directed on a par with the police, participates in the protection of public order and ensuring public safety. That is why the legislation, the Minister of the Interior coordinates the joint efforts of the police and the National Guard to ensure common peace and security.
Last year, 3 thousand 124 people died on the territory of the state as a result of emergencies, fires and other emergencies - these are terrible figures, behind each figure is the fate of people and families. Therefore, my special attention will be on the implementation of a system of voluntary insurance of property against fires and emergencies.
In the field of providing administrative services by units of the State Migration Service and the system of service centers, I will focus on further simplification and acceleration of obtaining passports and any permits. All services that can be provided remotely without compromising the security of personal data of citizens will be digitized for their convenience.
Interruptions in the production of forms, passports, driver's licenses should be a thing of the past forever, but here not everything is within the power of the ministry, we will contact you and other bodies.
And finally, I responsibly understand that today I can be appointed minister responsible for the internal security of a country that has been continuing its opposition to the aggression of the Russian Federation for the eighth year. Therefore, I intend to devote a large part of my work to strengthening the internal stability and defense of our Ukraine in close cooperation with the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff and Ukrainian intelligence. I assure you that I will take an active part in the creation of an effective system of terrorist drones and in all measures that will contribute to the restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, the return of the Ukrainian Crimea and Donbas.
Dear friends, I do not promise to solve all problems in an instant — this is impossible, but I promise to carry out my work professionally and fundamentally as a minister and I am ready to carry out my service in the interests of the Ukrainian people and the state with dignity.
Thank you again for the trust placed in me by the President of Ukraine, the Prime Minister and you, dear colleagues!
Glory to Ukraine!
