In Ukraine, small entrepreneurs demonstrate to resume work

Text by: RFI Follow

The economic effects of the confinement applied in Ukraine are starting to be felt in this poorest country in Europe in terms of GDP per capita. Entrepreneurs are demanding that the government be able to resume their activity. 

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With our correspondent in Kiev, Sébastien Gobert

"  I haven't had any bread for two months, and they get fat on the budget?"  Equipped with medical masks and gloves, several hundred entrepreneurs demonstrated outside the government building on Wednesday. They denounce the inactivity imposed on them while large corporations and restaurateurs with high-ranking friends continue to work.

The status of small entrepreneur is widespread in Ukraine. After almost 50 days of confinement, the situation is therefore experienced as a tragedy by millions of people across the country. According to recent studies, between 30% and 40% of Ukrainians have little or no savings to survive without income. Yet already 14% of the working population have lost their jobs. Only 25% manage to work remotely and maintain their level of remuneration.

The government has certainly decreed aid measures, but not enough to believe the demonstrations organized in several regions of the country. The Prime Minister does not budge: he waits for a peak of contagion in early May and refuses to ease the confinement before the epidemic subsides. In Ukraine, nearly 10,000 people tested positive for Covid-19, 250 died from it. 

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