At a press conference at the Independent Public Press Center "Volyn Choice – 2006," the head of the Secretariat of the Ukrainian People's Party, deputy head of the party, and former diplomat Bohdan Sokolovskyi shared his vision of the situation that has developed in the state today. According to him, all of the UNP's resources (about 100 thousand party members, the entire material and technical base) were deployed for Viktor Yushchenko's victory. However, when the executive branch began to form, UNP members turned out to be very few in it. "We are not making a tragedy out of this. But Yushchenko went somewhat the wrong way," noted Bohdan Ivanovych.
According to the head of the UNP Secretariat, in the economic sphere the new government managed to do a lot, but the shortcomings are also quite noticeable. Bohdan Sokolovskyi considers a decrease in exports (when there is a downturn in the metals market amid rising world oil prices) and re-privatization to be among the important shortcomings. "Re-privatization is not only the government's fault, because even before the elections we all promised that we would take everything back. We needed not to talk but to take concrete steps," noted the deputy head of the party.
Bohdan Sokolovskyi called the resignation of the government a shortcoming of the state's political life. Actually, not the resignation itself, since the President had the full constitutional right to dismiss the government, "especially without even explaining the reasons," because the resignation of a government in all developed countries is a normal phenomenon. The point is the reason for the government's resignation – the dismissal of . "I personally felt hurt," said Bohdan Ivanovych. "Not for Zinchenko, but that the issue was decided in exactly this way – it was brought out into the open. In other countries accusations are resolved behind closed doors, because afterwards all misunderstandings are resolved. This is in the interests of the state. The situation would not have been so acute if everyone had resigned. It is even more hurtful that foreigners got involved in the process. And that is already unacceptable. Every thinking citizen naturally forms the opinion that someone abroad is taking advantage of this situation."
Bohdan Sokolovskyi noted that the new government will be formed quite quickly. He is convinced that Kostenko could have formed it, "but the party will help form the government under the leadership of another Yurii Ivanovych as well," and expressed hope that the number of UNP members in the new government will increase.
According to Mr. Bohdan, the UNP will go into the upcoming parliamentary elections in a bloc of right-center forces. In the coalition they would like to see the NRU, the URP, and a number of other, smaller parties. If the bloc is not formed, the UNP counts on 9-10% of the vote. "With the Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc we turned out to have different views," noted Bohdan Ivanovych. "But this does not rule out agreements." In his opinion, in a month the positions of the political forces may change. However, he stated categorically that the Ukrainian People's Party will under no circumstances go for unity with Lytvyn, who is a vivid exponent of "Kuchmism." "For us the main desire is to form and establish a Ukrainian Ukraine," noted Bohdan Sokolovskyi. He believes that the 2006 elections will be "exceptionally difficult," and that "the harder it will be for people, the dirtier the elections will be." He commented on the Communist Party's statement about impeaching the President as follows: "Symonenko very carefully carries out the instructions of the 'older brother.' The party he heads is an anti-people, anti-Ukrainian force."
Volodymyr Tsybulko – a writer and people's deputy (a member of the UNP faction), who, according to him, "always played with the authorities, and for that got hit on the forehead," believes: "What has happened now is a reformation of forces. Ukraine suffers from it." The desire to see Ukraine as Ukrainian is what brought him into politics. Actually, he asserts that he "always dealt with what Ukraine lacked." Political activity, according to him, in no way hinders his poetic activity. On the contrary – "politics gives the poet hyper-responsibility" for every word he says.