The main domestic policy challenges and tasks for 2023

The chief domestic policy task for the next year will naturally remain the need to ensure stability and manageability.

Moreover, it is not only the need to preserve the current consolidation of all political forces in Ukraine, both parliamentary and non-parliamentary, around the protection of state sovereignty and territorial integrity, but also preventing the destruction of social solidarity in society.

One should note several important factors.

First, the current consolidation of political forces in Ukraine is spontaneous and situational, caused primarily by the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation and the introduction of martial law. Martial law imposes restrictions on political activity both objectively, formally and legally, and subjectively on the social and psychological levels.

However, this does not mean that antagonistic social interests and political ambitions have disappeared.

Moreover, the echoes of akin confrontations rise to the surface even during restrictions in the information space. It is a shame that sometimes the opposition doesn't hesitate to spread the narratives of Russian propaganda, such as speculations about the alleged conflict between the political and military leaderships of Ukraine.

We must realize that this will happen increasingly more often, especially as the end of the war approaches.

Secondly, it is worth noting that the socio-economic situation will remain difficult. While the majority is ready to put up with problems and difficulties during the war, after the war, socio-economic issues will inevitably come to the forefront. Therefore, it is already necessary to think about ways to minimize the impact of the difficult economic situation on socio-political attitudes.

At the same time, one shouldn't make unreasonably optimistic forecasts about a radical change in the Ukrainian political system. On the contrary, there are reasons to assume that all the differences that existed before the start of the full-scale invasion will remain, intensify, and most likely become radicalized. Moreover, this concerns both socio-economic issues and the humanitarian sphere.

Statements like "the guys will return from the front with a heightened sense of justice" do not take into account one fundamentally important detail: the guys who will return from the front will have a heightened sense of justice but also different views on justice, and individual players will try to use these differences for political gains. The inevitable worsening of the socio-economic situation can lead to an outbreak of crime and political violence.

Given this, it is worth laying the foundation for the post-war recovery and transformation of socio-economic relations in Ukraine, implementing radical reforms while there is a political consensus and a sufficiently high level of social consolidation.

At the same time, Ukraine will have to consider the dilemma of balancing the need for a sufficiently high level of centralization, which is inevitable in the conditions of war, and the need to continue the process of democratization in Ukraine.

Summarizing the analysis of domestic political challenges next year, we can say that it is time to start thinking not only about how to win this war but also about WHAT and HOW to do after the VICTORY.