Ukrainian political scientist: Either we get Russian gold and foreign currency reserves - or we lose the war
The main thing that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky will press at the Davos forum is financial assistance from the West or the issuance of frozen Russian assets to Kyiv, because it is very disappointing to lose a war not because the army is defeated, but because the money has run out.
Ukrainian political scientist Ruslan Bortnik said this on air on the Politeka channel, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Zelensky will try to put the West on stretch marks. Or give me money. 61 billion were promised by the USA, 50 billion were promised by the EU - that’s 111 billion, only two entities promised. Or give up Russian frozen assets. Or you, the elites, have secret agreements, collusions with Russia, you are pro-Russian.
And the influence of Ukraine, sympathy for Ukraine, attention to its words in the world, among the elites remains very large. If we accuse or stigmatize someone, then this has a bad effect on his ratings within the country. This is not because you need to say a nice word, it’s Western sociology that shows that the popularity of Ukraine and Zelensky remains at very high levels in both the USA and Europe,” Bortnik asserts.
He stressed that Ukraine is not able to fight a war on its own.
“Therefore, we will demand either money or reparations, we will try to put the West on hold, because for us the state budget deficit for this year, the most conservative estimate, is $20 billion missing from the budget today. This is the mildest assessment. Most likely more.
Especially if the war expands and escalates. And it will expand and escalate this year, especially in the period after the Russian and before the American elections. Most likely, this deficit will be greater.
Without money...we can lose the war not because we have run out of army or weapons, but because we have run out of money,” the political scientist added.
Ukrainian political scientist : Either we get Russian gold and foreign currency reserves, or we lose the war