MOSCOW, July 11. /ITAR-TASS/. Statements by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko regarding the intention to stop financing Ukrainian scientific research programs and spend the released funds on the production of “drones and precision weapons” are assessed by experts interviewed by the Political Analysis Center at ITAR-TASS as “encouraging brain drain to the European Union". The experts are also certain that Ukraine simply has no money and technology for the military production utilization.
Ukraine will cut the financing of the “needless” scientific programs in favor of increasing its own armaments production volumes for meeting the army demand, Poroshenko stated in Sloviansk on Thursday. “Billions of people’s funds, funds of taxpayers will no longer be spent on needless scientific programs that have only served as a pretext for embezzlement,” Poroshenko noted.
Head of the Customs Union Suppliers Association Oleg Noginsky says, “Europe does not need competition in science. Any scientific program presents competition to European scientific centers and enterprises. If Ukraine is cutting the remains of state financing of science that even without that had been scarce, all scientists will leave for countries of the European Union and for the United States. Simultaneously with cuts in financing, Ukrainian scientists receive attractive offers from European institutes to transfer their research to America and Europe. That is, we see the stimulation of the brain drain from the country in favor of these centers of power.”
The expert said that despite the fact the Ukrainian science had long been ruined, separate talented persons still remained in the country and they made world-class discoveries. “For example, the aircraft engine produced by the Zaporozhye-based Machine-Building Design Bureau Progress State Enterprise (ZMKB) surpasses all known world analogues, and nobody so far has managed to repeat the Yuzhmash (Southern Machine-Building Plant) research in the sphere of rocket equipment. The actively advertised electronic scalpel that makes tissue analysis during a surgery was also designed by Ukrainian scientists in a British laboratory. So, there are enough talents and enthusiasts in the country. The authorities only take measures to stimulate their more active departure abroad. After Poroshenko’s statements, they will start to look for a place to leave,” he says.
Deputy of the Odessa City Council, political exile Alexander Vasilyev was extremely surprised by the statement of Poroshenko. “Frankly speaking, Poroshenko’s tirade about millions spent by the taxpayers on some costly scientific programs has surprised me,” he says. “Over 15 years of my research activity, I have never seen any full-scale financing of science by the Ukrainian state. Most of the research is conducted with the help of attracting European, American, Russian, and in some cases, Chinese financial resources," Vasilyev noted.