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The legalization of gambling can cause a sharp increase in gambling addiction among young people and a collapse of moral standards in society.

Draft Law No. 2285-d on state regulation of the activity in the sphere of organization and delivery of gambling (in fact, the initiative of the authorities to allow the presence of casinos and gambling halls in Ukrainian populated areas in direct access for citizens) has been submitted to the parliament. The lifting of the ban on gambling will lead to an increase in the number of crimes and higher risk for the state to lose control over the situation.

UAH three billion of budget revenues from entities involved in organization and delivery of gambling, an amount declared within the government's program, are definitely not a driver of economic growth. They are modest revenues, and they do not compensate for the threat of sliding into extreme poverty for millions of Ukrainian families who will face gambling addiction.

I am following the debates around the Normandy Four summit and what I see is a continuous stream of criticism: some say that the summit turned out to be completely void and brining no concrete results, others – about the loss of Ukraine, about the wrong behaviour of Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In fact, one is probably blind if he or she does not see the concrete successes of the summit. Just six months ago, the “minimal successes” now criticized were generally unthinkable – the process of resolving the situation in the Donbass was at an impasse. Through joint efforts, the parties managed to overcome the impasse (created exactly by those who today are trying to hypocritically shout about "betrayal" and "surrender" and threaten with Maidan protests). Is this not a reason for a high assessment of the summit?

President Zelenskyy acted with dignity. Yes, he was worried. Yes, he improvised during the press conference, and not always successfully. However, he showed firmness in negotiations with more experienced partners and clearly outlined the interests and priorities of Ukraine. At the summit, he was by no means a weak negotiator. For him the summit became a kind of “baptism by fire” in international politics.

An interview with the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports of Ukraine Volodymyr Borodianskyy given to the Religious Information Service of Ukraine, where he discourses upon the forcible renaming of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, shows that the current government and the so-called “servants of the people” have many of those who continue to think in the spirit of political Poroshenkovism, which is based on extreme nationalism, militarism, and attempts of the state’s gross interference with the affairs of the Church.

Borodianskyy reiterates the messages of the previous authorities that the UOC has ties with the aggressor state, and therefore should indicate a direct dependence on the Moscow Patriarchate in its name.

Some representatives of the new authorities forget that the credit of trust received by the “Servants of the People” party during the 2019 election campaigns is a consequence of citizens' reaction to the humanitarian policy pursued by the previous President. Voting for Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his party, Ukrainian people voted primarily for the restoration of civil peace, for ending the policy of dividing Ukrainians into the “right” and the “wrong” ones, and against persecution on a language or religious basis.

Dear friends!

Today's date – the 75^th anniversary of the liberation of Ukraine from the German invaders – is another reason for us to bow our heads to the feat of those who saved our land at the cost of incredible efforts and their shed blood. Millions of lives were given in order to liberate Ukraine from the bearers of a man-hateful ideology that considered the Slavs, Jews and representatives of other peoples as “non-humans” to be destroyed or enslaved. 75 years ago, during the Great War, people began to value the concepts of “peace” and “human life” in a new way.

Unfortunately, today we live in a society where the spiritual heirs of Nazism once again raise their heads, and where politicians do not feel shy calling to reconsider the results of the Great Patriotic War. Just a while ago, desecration of the symbols of the Victory and the memory of Heroes was encouraged at the level of the country's top leadership, and institutions aiming to reconsider our recent past were funded at public expense. Ukrainian people have made an appraisal of these forces in the attempts of the latter to rewrite the history, and again showed their wisdom.