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Deferment does not mean West intends to forgive Kiev’s debt — Russian MFA

The Russian Foreign Ministry noted that scandals in the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and the plundering of humanitarian aid coming in exacerbate the situation in the country’s financial and economic sphere

MOSCOW, April 21. /TASS/. The West is not going to forgive Ukraine’s foreign debt despite the fact that it is allowing Kiev to defer the payments until 2027, a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry published on Friday said.

The diplomatic agency stressed that the Kiev regime continues to live on credit as Western countries subsidize its military spending, social assistance programs, medicine and education. "A large share of financial aid comes in the form of repayable loans while the amount from grants is insignificant. And while Ukraine can defer the payments on its external debt until 2027, nobody is going to write it off for Kiev," the Russian Foreign Ministry stated.

The ministry also noted that the draft of the Ukrainian budget for this year provides for a twofold increase in payments on the foreign debt with the majority of the burden to pay it off undoubtedly "falling on Ukrainian citizens because there is nowhere else the money could come from." "In this situation, the Kiev regime apparently sees that the only way to save itself is by continuing military action," the diplomatic agency added.

The Russian Foreign Ministry noted that scandals in the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and the plundering of humanitarian aid coming in exacerbate the situation in the country’s financial and economic sphere. "As a result, in the words of Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Samantha Power, the West began to doubt the ability of the Kiev regime to control the spending of financial aid. Washington thinks this problem can be solved by increasing the transparency of the Ukrainian budget and intends to conduct an audit of all its spending," the statement concluded.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said before a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Friday that the amount of military aid to Ukraine provided by NATO countries since the onset of Russia’s special military operation is upwards of $55 bln.

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