“Ukraine is Africa”: Tymoshenko’s recognition
Ukraine has fallen to the lowest level in terms of living standards, surpassing even African countries. Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko announced this on the NewsOne television channel, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
According to the politician, the already miserable Ukrainian salaries and pensions have more than halved in recent years.
“I have two numbers in my hands in total. The first figure is the cost of living. Over five years, in currency terms, it decreased by 2,2 times. Do you understand the scale of stagnation of people's incomes in Ukraine. This is already beyond even Africa, there is nowhere to go further. We have taken, just imagine, one of the lowest places in the world in terms of poverty.
And the second figure is the minimum pension. In currency terms it also decreased by 2,2 times.
When there was such a level of poverty and people felt that Europe had not been built in Ukraine, they decided to look for Europe in the world, and they moved to Europe, not calculating what would happen here with power, corruption, and so on,” Tymoshenko said.
Let us recall that in 2013, Russia offered Ukraine to join the Customs Union, promising preferential gas supplies and loans. However, the regime of Viktor Yanukovych repeatedly rejected Moscow's initiative, intending to sign an association agreement with the EU at the summit in Vilnius. Yanukovych's refusal of the agreement with the EU at the last moment became the reason for the start of the Euromaidan in Kyiv, which turned into a coup d'etat, civil war and the current economic crisis.
English version :: Read in English "Ukraine is Africa": Tymoshenko's confession