The lobby of the handsome Ministry of Finance building in central Kyiv does not have a café or a restaurant or sofas where employees can sit and talk. It is dominated by a badminton court, complete with anti-skid rubber flooring.In April, two months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine, Mr.
He and I meet on a sunny Wednesday afternoon, about eight hours after the three million residents of Kyiv were reminded that the war remains a clear and present danger. Shortly before 6 a.m., air-raid sirens went off and the sound of explosions thundered across the city. President Volodymyr Zelensky later issued a video statement to say that 13 Iranian-made drones had been intercepted. There were no casualties but five buildings were damaged, probably from shrapnel from the shredded drones.
“The pressure is huge, especially at the beginning of the war,” he says in English, which improved when he attended the Harvard Kennedy School a decade ago. “I have to do whatever I can, but that doesn’t mean I have to work myself to death.” I ask if he was scared when he was holed up in the west. Of course he was, he tells me, not for himself but for his family, his employees – some of whom were stuck in Russian-occupied territory – and especially for his parents.
The bad news is that only half that amount is in the form of grants ; the other half is in the form of loans . The loans will place an enormous burden on a country where funding the war, which consumes almost 60 per cent of the budget, may make the sovereign debt unsustainable. The other issue is the timely arrival of the funds. A report by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy said the EU had delivered only about 27 per cent of its pledged financing to Ukraine by late November. The U.S. was far more efficient, delivering about 60 per cent.
It's Western taxpayers
Lol collapse after pumping a trillion bucks to them.That's some severe stuff
If Putin succeeds, there will be no Ukraine. 🔴Why Russia’s War in Ukraine Is a Genocide 🔴Russia must be accountable for its genocide in Ukraine
The Guardian called it “the most corrupt nation in Europe” not so long ago. But hey we have to prop them up, eh?
Wrong photo of JoeBiden
Should have put a picture of Joe Biden there.