The State of the State; April 1919

As the dust settled from the Ukrainian War of Independence, the matter of appraising the current situation was raised and tabled to the government. A team of public servants therefore took it upon themselves to investigate the current situation, and figure out what exactly the Ukrainians were working with. The project, titled the "Слідство, що визначає стан держави" (The "Investigation that determines the state of the state") was aimed at deeply investigating what the current state of Ukraine is. After an exhaustive period of investigations, questions and in some cases bribes, the conclusion was reached, and the facts none too comforting.

Outside from the obvious issues; low literacy rates, a near-even split in Ukrainian and Russian speakers and more, there are three main categories of "priority note"

Стан армії
"State of the Army"

To call the Ukrainian Army a "European Army" would either be a grand overstatement or an insult to every other "army" in Europe. The Army is a heterogenous, non-uniform, chaotic, chimeric and motley mess...and that's at the best of times; Units range from remnant tsarist formations to somewhat coherent units, to militia formations and simple leaderless collections of fighters. A sizeable minority of commanders are incompetent, holding their positions simply because they talk the talk and walk the walk, and even then half the time the orders are poorly executed or misinterpreted. What few professional soldiers remain are too few and far between to make much difference, despite there being fierce patriotism for Ukraine.

Irrespective, patriotism doesn't win modern wars, that falls to equipment, and it goes without saying the equipment is no better than the army. A unit may have five different types of rifles, requiring three different calibers of munitions. Some units might be well equipped while others may hold little more than hunting rifles and pistols, without hide nor hair of a machine gun in sight. Militias lack enough ammo to even last a skirmish and might even lack shoes, and the logistic nightmare puts unnecessary strain on the logistic department.

While the army was effective at delaying the Bolshevik long enough to achieve victory, it is in no shape to fight a modern war; exhaustive reforms are imperative if Ukraine hopes to remain independent for long.

стан економіки
"State of the Economy"

In terms of economy, Ukraine has no economy. Ukraine has ports, that much is true, but Ukraine has no ships to export their grain. Thus, outside of railways to the west and east, there is no way to export Ukraine's bountiful grain, and even then the train lines are narrow and ill-suited for exporting large quantities of grain. With no way to export grain in large enough numbers, there's no way to get foreign capital, with no way to get foreign capital there's no way to kickstart industrialisation and compound on what little the Russians did before independence. The Krone is worthless without question anyway, so there's no real point in trying to use it to get capital.

An ideal way to get this issue solved is with petitioning for foreign aid, and considering the troubles brewing in the west, such an outcome is hard to consider viable. Considering machining tools and heavy equipment is necessary for the mass production of both machining tools, mechanised farm tools and weaponry, revitalising the economy is high on the list of things to do, as if they remain dominantly agrarian, then they will perish.

стан політики
"State of the Politics"

Ukrainian identity is somewhat paradoxical. Many Ukrainians agree they are Ukrainians, and firmly believe in an independent state. However the differences lie amongst what "Ukraine" means. To some, "Ukraine" speaks of parliamentary democracy, of republic, or liberal democracy, while some believe they should follow the model of Lenin; socialism, marxism, revolution. To others, "Ukraine" screams of a strong central government with a strong military to defend it's constitution, with others even believing the military should be the constitution (namely, some members in the military). Nestor Makhno's anarchists believe Ukraine should be more free than it is, and shirk the chains of a modern polity.

While these groups temporarily allied under the blue and yellow banner during the war, they have begun becoming ideologically separated along lines of party and political allegiance. For the time being, it seems the dreams of a parliamentary republic will be realised initially, but if these dreams will persist in the unstable reality before them is anyones guess. A strong government, however, will be required to preserve Ukraine from being occupied and from ripping itself apart.