KIEV, March 10. /TASS/. President Pyotr Poroshenko has given a major interview to Ukraine’s First National channel. Impossibility of improvements of people’s living in the conditions of a war became the keynote of his address to the audiences a yet another time.
"Life won’t improve shortly," Poroshenko said as he spoke about the current reforms unfolding in "tough wartime conditions".
"If someone understands the reforms as improvement of people’s living, this is an erroneous understanding," he said.
Conviction that peace was forthcoming peace was one of the keynotes of what he said. In this connection, Poroshenko indicated Ukraine had pulled back a considerable part of its weaponry from the line of contact separating the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the self-defence units of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.
"Ukraine has pulled back a lion’s share of multiple launchers and artillery," Poroshenko said.
Along with it, he reaffirmed Kiev’s plans to fortify its positions and to strengthen the Army. He promised to build a powerful system of deeply echeloned fortifications in the east of the country, he said.
Simultaneously, Poroshenko pointed out Kiev’s plans to pick up the weaponry that the Ukrainian forces had left behind in Crimea after the latter reunified with Russia in March 2014.
As he spoke about the current status of the national economy, he said 25% of its manufacturing facilities had come to a standstill and 10% had been destroyed physically. Despite the financial constraints, Ukraine was going to have the biggest possible defense budget of about $ 4 billion.
Poroshenko also mentioned the problem of natural gas supplies, saying Kiev had paid less than $ 300 per thousand cubic meters of gas last time. From now on, Ukraine would paying $ 245 per thousand cubic meters for the gas it would received by ways of reverse flow from Europe.
Journalist Zurab Alsaniya acted as a nominal interviewer but their conversation looked rather weird. It seemed that Poroshenko was making a preplanned speech, offering practically no reaction to Alsaniya’s questions and interrupting him at every turn.
He informed the nationwide audiences that the interviews of this kind would become regular.
Also, Poroshenko urged other high-rank officials to build up communications with the media.