[ncc-services-wg] UA IP transfers situation

Hi All!

Let me point out what is happening with Ukrainian resources transfers.

We are now facing with the hugest government based attack against our 
basic principles of government free self regulation.

I think the real target of the attacker is to obtain a financial gain 
from IPv4 market.

First, the deputy of Ukrainian Parliament Olexandr Fedienko wrote a 
letter to RIPE NCC with the initiative of hand-checking transfer 
requests with Ukrainian government agency. This idea was not accepted 
neither by Ukrainian, nor by European community. People understand this 
is a step out from RIPE community self-governance and the source of 
corrupted money for this agency as it should decide either pass the 
transfer or not.

After that initiative was rejected, Fedienko with the help of his 
representatives at the RIPE 85 meeting in Belgade tried to ban all the 
transfers outside Ukraine. His representatives promoted a set of very 
expressive and emotional speeches about possible forced transfers. He 
also used his power and pushed a set of Ukrainian companies to register 
online to RIPE 85 (and for some reason - for GM, I think he just don't 
understand the difference) and to send a copy-pasted message about 
support of the ban.

The idea is to close the market, limiting the transfers only to 
Ukrainian companies. And to buy resources almost for free, as the war 
pushes people to sell it, while the buy offers are very limited. It 
looks logical. But their arguments for the ban are not.

They said they need the whole-Ukrainian ban to protect resources at the 
distressed areas against the forced transfer.

First, while RIPE NCC accepts "documents" issued on the occupied 
territories based on LPR/DPR/Russian jurisdiction, this ban of Ukrainian 
resources transfer can be easily avoided just using these "documents". 
Including for the real forced transfers.
Second, it is nothing to do with Ukrainian companies based on the 
territories not in the distress area. From the war front line to for 
example Uzhgorod city there are ~800km and 2000m high mountains. Why 
should we complicate the life for these companies?
Third, it is unclear why transfers inside Ukraine should not be banned 
for the time the policy is being updated. If we really have the problem, 
it is logical to ban all transfers.
Forth, I asked many times to show any example of the forced transfer in 
the distress area. They can't. I did not hear any of these situations 
myself. So for me the problem they are trying to solve did not even exist.

This situation with the possible country-wide transfer ban rose a big 
discussion in Telecom Ukraine telegram channel, which is a discussion 
point for a lot of (but not all) Ukrainian Internet and telecom companies.

Instead of explaining things for my requests, Olexandr Fedienko call me 
there a hidden Russian FSB agent, and Olena Kushnir said I do not 
understand that "we should keep a valuable resource inside our country 
during the war". But sorry, these are definitely not their resources! So 
they should not tell holders what to do with it, until we are not live 
in a Communist country where all things belongs to the government.

This situation makes deeply concern Ukrainian community and resources 
holders. We are really afraid some of this proposals will be implemented 
without consensus inside Ukrainian community, just because of government 
letters, emotional speeches. And definitely without any "closed 
meetings" (C) Olena Kushnir with NCC staff inaccessible for people with 
another opinion.

It will be so kind if RIPE NCC officials release a statement where they 
clearly state they will not implement any bans for resource holders not 
in the distress area. And any changes on the policy will be implemented 
with the current policy development process, consensus, and in the 
co-operation with all community. This will calm down the situation and 
will convince people that NCC really respects and protects the interests 
of the community members.

Thank you very much for the long reading!