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On May 16, tens of thousands of Ukrainian businessmen and business associations addressed an open letter to President Volodymyr Zelensky. They called for the dismissal of Danylo Hetmantsev from the post of chairman of the parliamentary committee on finance, tax, and customs policy, as well as the removal of his post as the secretary in the National Council for Reconstruction of Ukraine. In a letter to Volodymyr Zelensky, the signatories call Hetmantsev "the personification of a regressive, populist socialist approach." Hetmantsev has been chairing the relevant parliamentary committee since August 2019. Business often criticizes him for his budget-centric stance and for his more meticulous attitude toward the state to tax collection. Hetmantsev himself says that he lobbies for white business, and everyone has to pay taxes. Zelensky did not personally respond to the businessmenʼs letter. On May 20, the head of the Presidentʼs Office, Andriy Yermak, and his deputy Rostyslav Shurma met with business associations. They agreed to prepare ideas and proposals for the stateʼs economic policy. Hetmantsev himself is likely to remain in office. According to Babelʼs interlocutor in the parliamentary leadership, he has no alternative, and in the committee, he is "fair". Hetmantsev met with Babel correspondent Masha Zhartovska and photographer Serhiy Morgunov in his office on the premises of Verkhovna Rada committees. He came for an interview immediately after the meeting of his committee, where they listened to the heads of the State Customs Service of Ukraine. Hetmantsev called customs a direction "the one he feels the shame for". During the interview, he explained that it is not the same with customs as it is right to collect taxes on business, why he is not a Marxist, and why it is not worth publicly punishing presenters who worked for oligarchic channels.
