17 Nov, 2023 16:04

Ukraine is broke – former PM

Kiev’s budget almost completely depends on Western funding, Nikolay Azarov says

Ukraine is bankrupt and the country is unable to fill its budget deficit on its own, as it relies almost entirely on Western aid, former Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov stated on Friday.

The former politician argued that the economic crisis in Ukraine began a long time ago and the country’s bankruptcy had already been recorded. According to him, Ukraine’s insolvency is manifested in the fact that the country is unable to fill its budget.

“75% of the budget is borrowed or grant funds! And they got to such a point that salaries in October depended on whether the European Union would transfer on time the promised aid of €1.5 billion,” Azarov wrote on Facebook. (If the Oligarchs stopped stealing billions and perhaps trillions, the country would be fine, and getting a rid of the leaders would straighten things out.)

Meanwhile, public debt is soaring and the budget deficit is widening despite Western aid, according to Azarov. Earlier this month, Ukraine’s central bank revised this year’s budget deficit forecast to 20.4% of the gross domestic product instead of the 19.8% previously expected, in what would be the worst performance since 1992.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal last week announced that Kiev was expecting a financial injection worth $30 billion from the EU, the US, and the International Monetary Fund, which would help the country plug its budget gap.

Azarov has previously warned that the country’s economy is “falling apart” as it shows signs of life only with foreign financial assistance, requiring more and more of it.

According to the Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergey Marchenko, next yearUkraine’s budget will lack $29 billion without Western financing.

https://www.rt.com/business/587486-ukraine-economy-bankrupt/

17 Nov, 2023 13:31

(Messianic) Zelensky fears a new ‘Maidan’ – Bloomberg

The Ukrainian president has reportedly claimed there may be Moscow-inspired mass protests in Kiev

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky told journalists on Thursday that he has received tips about a Russian influence campaign aimed at destabilizing his government, according to a Bloomberg report. He claimed that various intelligence agencies had informed him about the purported operation.

Ukraine’s top leadership has experienced divisions in recent months, with a series of publications in the Western press, based on leaks from Kiev staffers, describing Zelensky as calcified in pursuing an unrealistic goal of pushing Russia out of all territories claimed by Kiev.

His office has also publicly clashed with one of the country’s top generals, Valery Zaluzhny, who said earlier this month that the hostilities had reached a stalemate and that he expected no breakthrough for Kiev.

Bloomberg reported on Friday that Zelensky claims to have received information from Ukrainian and allied intelligence services warning him about a “disinformation plan known internally as ‘Maidan 3’” meant to play on fractures in civil society and foment insurrection.

Maidan means “square” in Ukrainian. Maidan 1 and 2 are the terms for the mass protests that took place in 2004 and 2014, respectively, primarily in Kiev’s Independence Square. Both were directed against Viktor Yanukovich, the former president whose political support base was in what was then the majority Russian-speaking eastern portion of the country, but which joined Russia in a series of referendums in 2022.

The 2004 protest was mostly peaceful and successfully overturned Yanukovich’s victory in that year’s presidential race. On the other hand, the 2014 demonstration occurred while Yanukovich was in office, forcing him to flee the country and resign from his post as armed rioters targeted his home.

The violent uprising in 2014, Maidan 2, was backed by the West and empowered nationalist forces in the country. Moscow has described the policies of the successive government in post-coup Kiev as discriminatory against ethnic Russians and detrimental to Russia’s national security.

Zelensky was elected on a promise of reconciliation with Donbass rebels but caved into the pressure of pro-Maidan nationalists, who threatened him with mass protests. Now, he believes Russia is seeking to provoke chaos and division in his country and topple his government. Bloomberg quoted him as saying: “Maidan is coup for them (Moscow), so the operation is understandable.”

Earlier this month, a profile of the Ukrainian president in TIME magazine cited his close aides as complaining about his unwavering pursuit of a military victory over Moscow, which the report called “verging on the messianic.” One source in the article reportedly called Zelensky delusional.

General Zaluzhny outlined his vision of the frontline situation in The Economist, stating that despite all the Western assistance, Ukrainian troops were unlikely to carry out a “deep and beautiful breakthrough.” The remark put into doubt Zelensky’s assurances that the counteroffensive against Russia was progressing and reportedly fueled tension between his government and Kiev’s military leadership.

(He’s so full of shit, he knows his generals and others want him out and probably are planning, but he’s going to blame it on Russia and execute them as Russian sympathizers, he’s setting it up to execute a lot who disagree with him and think he is ruining the country. He should flee the country asap.)

https://www.rt.com/russia/587476-zelensky-maidan-protests-moscow/