Ukraine risks economic collapse next year if its Western allies don’t cover their huge budget deficits, and such an economic crisis would be “very, very traumatic not only for Ukraine but for all of Europe,” he told Politico on Wednesday. I, Minister of Finance of Ukraine Serhiy Marchenko, reports Agerpres.

“The budget (of Ukraine) is quite simple. We can spend funds from taxes and internal loans only on the army, and for the civilian part of our budget, we rely only on our partners,” explained the Ukrainian minister.

The EU has offered Ukraine macro-financial assistance in the amount of 18 billion euros for the current year. For the next four years, the European Commission has proposed a total financial package of 50 billion euros, but Hungary and Slovakia are currently opposed to the approval of this aid to Kyiv, the opposition is justified by the two countries because of corruption in Ukraine and the lack of transparency in spending these funds.

An additional problem is the reluctance of American Republicans to increase US financial aid to Ukraine. Democratic President Joe Biden asked Congress to approve $61.4 billion in aid to Ukraine as part of a broader package of funds for Israel, Taiwan and protecting the US border against the influx of migrants. But that aid is currently blocked by Republicans, who approved only aid to Israel in the House of Representatives, where they hold a majority, and then rejected it in the Democratic-majority Senate because it would require approval of the entire requested package from Biden.

However, the Ukrainian finance minister is sure that over time the situation will be resolved in Washington and American financial aid to Ukraine will be approved. “I think (aid) will materialize. It’s only a matter of time,” says Martsenko.

He was more concerned about the situation with European financial aid and argued that, in the absence of its prompt receipt, Ukraine’s economic problems would quickly spread to the rest of Europe due to the increase in the number of Ukrainian refugees and inflation, especially the increase in the price of energy and food products.

Minister of Finance of Ukraine Serhiy Marchenko (Photo: Jose Luis Magana / AP / Profimedia)

“We are ready to discuss to understand what are the obstacles (…) and what else we should do (…) It could be another package of reforms, there could be some ideas to strengthen our anti-corruption bodies. ” to receive financial aid from the EU, clarified the Ukrainian Minister of Finance, who warned that the delay in receiving the funds could be fatal for Kyiv. “We need money from the beginning of next year,” he insisted.

In this context, Minister Martsenko said that the Ukrainian parliament on Wednesday approved a law that allows for the redirection of taxes paid by military personnel from local budgets to the state budget, Reuters reports.

The funds received from these taxes, which are about 96 billion hryvnias (2.5 billion euros), will be directed to the production and purchase of weapons. “We have to create the conditions to turn the tide of the military campaign,” the minister reasoned in the debate on this law before the vote in parliament.

In June, the Ukrainian army launched a counteroffensive to liberate Russian-occupied territories, but so far this effort has not led to significant progress.

In an article and interview published last week by The Economist, Ukrainian army commander General Valery Zaluzhny warned that the war with Russia has reached the stage of a conflict of attrition, and Ukraine needs weapons that are technologically superior to Russia’s. to advance

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