Reflecting Ukraine’s schlerotic bureaucracy, one month after the government allocated funds to triple the March pay of doctors and nurses working with Covid-19 patients, the payments have been made in only one oblast – Poltava – out of the 24, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said Monday in online briefing. Last Wednesday, President Zelenskiy threatened to fire regional administrators who do not implement his order for the payments. Frustrated by the delay, medical workers increasingly protest. On Monday, an AP story from a hospital in Ukraine’s hardest hit region, Chernivtsi, was picked up by dozens of US news sites, including The Washington Post.
Reflecting Ukraine’s schlerotic bureaucracy, one month after the government allocated funds to triple the March pay of doctors and nurses working with Covid-19 patients, the payments have been made in only one oblast – Poltava – out of the 24
