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Ukraine’s course towards joining EU leads to massive unemployment — public movement leader

Thousands, hundreds of thousands of experienced highly qualified specialists have no job across Ukraine," the leader of the Ukrainian Choice public movement stressed

KIEV, August 19. /TASS/. Reformers in Ukraine who pursue the policy towards European integration have put the country’s economy on the brink of collapse and left millions of Ukrainians jobless, the leader of the Ukrainian Choice public movement, Victor Medvedchuk, said on Wednesday.

While the Kiev government says it seeks to loosen the oligarchs’ grip in Ukraine and also to conduct the policy towards unshadowing and de-offshorization, and the reformers pledge to create better conditions for businesses, "millions of Ukrainians join the army of jobless," Medvedchuk said.

"Thousands, hundreds of thousands of experienced highly qualified specialists have no job across Ukraine," he stressed.

The country’s ministry for social policy said in early 2015 that some 1.5 million job cuts were announced over the past year. By the year-end, another 80,000 Ukrainians employed by the governmental agencies are due to be dismissed, Medvedchuk said.

By making the choice to sever trade and economic ties with Russia and shifting towards the EU market where no one waited for the Ukrainian goods, the pro-European reformers jeopardized the national economy, he said.

"Today Ukraine pays the price for the choice made in March 2014 by the Euromaidan leaders for the people but without their consent," he said, adding that the massive unemployment and the decline in the country’s GDP is the result of the reformist policy.