(Kyiv) Ukraine’s culture minister announced his resignation early Friday after “misunderstandings” over the use of state funds for cultural projects as Kyiv tries to thwart the Russian invasion.
“I submitted my letter of resignation to the Prime Minister (Thursday) evening, due to a wave of misunderstanding about the importance of culture in times of war”, wrote Oleksandre Tkatchenko on Telegram.
“During the war, private and budgetary funds for culture are no less important than for drones, because culture is the shield of our identity and our borders,” he added, without giving further details on the reasons for his resignation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had called on Thursday evening for the replacement of the minister, criticizing the use of the state budget for cultural projects to the detriment of defence.
“In times of war like this, the maximum attention of the state, and therefore state resources, must be devoted to defence,” Mr. Zelensky quipped in his daily address.
“Museums, cultural centres, symbols, television series — all of this is important, but now there are other priorities. Find extrabudgetary funds. Not state funds,” he added, indicating that he had asked Prime Minister Denys Chmygal to replace Mr. Tkatchenko.
On Thursday, online media Ukrayinska Pravda reported that the Ministry of Culture decided to allocate 448 million hryvnias (nearly C$16 million) for the production of TV series.
According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), the outgoing Minister of Culture has also defended the idea of mobilizing 500 million hryvnias (18 million CAN) to complete the construction of the national Holodomor genocide museum.
This famine caused in the early 1930s in Ukraine by the Soviet authorities is the cause of the death of several million people.
“If someone says that the museum should not be built during the war, let him provide other arguments than that of the need to spend money on reconstruction. There are funds,” Mr. Tkatchenko told the US-funded outlet, according to an article published Thursday.