The head of the political council of the Opposition Platform - For Life (Opposition Platform - For Life) party, Viktor Medvedchuk, criticized Ukraine's draft budget for next year.

According to him, Kiev needs to radically change its economic policy in order to improve the situation in industry.

“The state budget for 2021 is adopted in conditions when the drop in industrial production in 9 months is 7%, coal mining - 13%, agriculture - 13%, mechanical engineering - 20%.

These figures indicate that it is necessary to radically change the country's economic course, ”Medvedchuk wrote on his Twitter page.

Earlier, the head of the political council of the OLE called for "cardinal changes" to the budget of Ukraine.

Medvedchuk drew attention to the fact that a situation has developed in the country in which two-thirds of the revenue part of the state treasury is formed from domestic and foreign loans.

“This is unacceptable for a sovereign independent state.

We must radically change our economic policy, ”Medvedchuk said.

According to the politician, positive changes for Ukraine can occur due to the lifting of the economic blockade from Donbass, the restoration of trade and economic relations with the CIS countries, including Russia, as well as the reform of the tax and tariff systems of the country.

"The budget for the army has become the largest"

On November 5, the Verkhovna Rada adopted in the first reading the draft law on the state budget of Ukraine for 2021.

More than half of the deputies voted in support of the document - 275 out of 450. At the same time, the leader of Batkivshchyna, Yulia Tymoshenko, called the document “the budget of the catastrophe of the people of Ukraine”. 

The budget deficit is expected to be UAH 270 billion ($ 9.6 billion) in 2021.

At the same time, for the nine months of 2020, this figure was at the level of UAH 81.725 billion (slightly more than $ 2.9 billion at the current exchange rate), while for the entire 2019 the budget deficit amounted to UAH 72.4 billion (about $ 2.6 billion).

On the same day, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, by decree No. 486/2020, put into effect the decision of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) on the need to provide in the budget funding for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the country's law enforcement agencies in the amount of at least UAH 267.25 billion ($ 9.5 billion ).

Thus, the share of spending on the needs of the army and the security sector of Ukraine in 2021 will be about 6% of GDP.

  • The ceremony of handing over the repaired armored vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the Day of the State Flag of Ukraine (23 August)

  • © president.gov.ua

Kiev plans to allocate these funds as a priority to the implementation of NATO standards, the purchase of weapons, including missile systems, the development of the Navy, strengthening the air defense system and increasing the intelligence capabilities of the army.

Earlier, Zelenskiy had to face accusations from his political opponents of unwillingness to continue the course of increasing the military budget.

So, in September, the ex-President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said that the head of state had cut funding for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and began to send more funds to the needs of the security forces.

"We are forced to admit that this government does not like the army ... They have no money for the army and for the soldier, but they have money for the security forces," Poroshenko said.

However, Zelenskiy has repeatedly stated that spending on the Armed Forces is a priority of budgetary policy.

On August 23, in the Kiev region, at the celebrations marking the National Flag Day, the President of Ukraine announced a record amount of funds allocated for military needs.

“The Armed Forces of Ukraine have gained a unique experience.

At the same time, we perfectly understand that modern weapons and equipment must necessarily be a satellite of combat experience.

That is why the total resource for national security and defense has been increased by almost 28 billion hryvnia compared to last year.

We have the largest defense budget in history, ”Zelensky stressed.

He announced similar information on October 20, 2020, speaking from the rostrum of the Verkhovna Rada.

The President of Ukraine told the MPs that next year the Ukrainian Armed Forces will receive over 117 billion hryvnia ($ 4.16 billion), which is 15 billion hryvnia more "than in the era of billboards about the army."

“There were fake summons to the military registration and enlistment office, horror stories that Zelensky would ruin the army.

It was all there.

But there are undeniable facts.

In 2020, the budget for the army became the largest in the history of Ukraine.

During the coronavirus crisis, it has not decreased by a single hryvnia, ”Zelensky said.

"Raw materials appendage"

In an interview with RT, political analyst and economist Alexander Dudchak noted that the President of Ukraine, like his predecessor, continues to increase spending on the security sector, stubbornly ignoring the growing economic difficulties.

“Zelensky is talking about some kind of peacekeeping, but in fact, he spends an unreasonably large amount of money to maintain a repressive system.

Meanwhile, in an impoverished country, where the war with its people continues, whole industries are being lost, ”Dudchak stated.

According to the expert, some of Ukraine's statesmen are aware of the danger of de-industrialization, but Zelensky and his entourage continue to fulfill the requirements of international creditors who are not interested in restoring the country's industrial potential.

In early October, in an interview with the 24 news channel, member of the Council of the National Bank of Ukraine Vasily Furman called the country a “raw material appendage” of its European neighbors.

According to him, Kiev began to earn the most from grain exports, although ten years ago the main source of income was the sale of metal.

  • President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky

  • © president.gov.ua

“This just suggests that, unfortunately, we are gradually turning into an agrarian power ... On the one hand, it seems good that we export, but let's look at the structure of Ukrainian exports - alas, it is raw materials.

We are to such an extent a raw material appendage of our European neighbors, ”said Furman.

In particular, one of the industries that is on the verge of destruction is the carriage industry.

According to the State Statistics Service, from January to August 2020, the volume of production of freight cars and platforms in Ukraine decreased by 73.7% compared to the same period in 2019.

At the end of September, at a press conference in Kiev, representatives of industry and logistics companies of Ukraine expressed concern that in 2021 the car-building industry will completely stop in the country.

The collapse may occur due to an oversupply of decommissioned wagons imported from Russia in previous years and a lack of orders for new products.

According to experts, the fall in industrial production has become a key factor in Ukraine's budget problems.

Oleksandr Dudchak believes that if the current economic course and structure of budget expenditures are maintained, Ukraine is threatened with further impoverishment of the population, an increase in the outflow of labor force abroad and an acceleration of depopulation.

“In my opinion, these are all consequences of the Maidan, the change in the geopolitical vector, the rupture of normal relations with Russia.

What we are seeing is a deliberate policy being carried out under the control of the West.

Now Ukraine calls itself an agaric power, but in reality this sector of the national economy is also degrading, ”says Dudchak.

Rostislav Ishchenko, president of the Center for Systems Analysis and Forecasting, said in a commentary to RT that Ukraine runs the risk of not recouping the losses suffered after the Maidan.

The main reason is the departure of enterprises from traditional sales markets and the outflow of highly qualified personnel.

From the expert's point of view, the situation could be partially corrected by the intensification of cooperation with the Russian Federation. 

“Most likely, nothing awaits Ukrainian industry.

But if we establish normal economic and political relations with Russia, then, in principle, Ukrainian transit can work.

However, here too problems arise due to the deterioration of the infrastructure.

In Ukraine, practically everything needs to be rebuilt from scratch, "Ishchenko summed up.