Digital Discrimination: Why "Transport Communism" and Targeted Subsidies Equally Hurt Passengers

Cartoon by Olexandr Sydorenko.

The right to free travel for those on benefits in Ukraine has long since become a battlefield between two extremes. On the one hand, there is the desperate “transport communism,” which is currently washing billions out of the budget of Kharkiv, which has been blocked by shelling. On the other, there is the European, at first glance, model of targeted support, where every passenger and every hryvnia must be accounted for.