MOSCOW, October 6. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has shown himself to be a short-sighted politician by fully trusting the promises of help from his US counterpart Joe Biden, said Viktor Medvedchuk, who is the leader of the Other Ukraine movement.
He said the case in point was the recent approval of a US budget proposal that allowed the financing of government agencies for 45 days. One headline-grabbing thing about the proposal was that it didn’t set aside any funding for assistance to Ukraine, Medvedchuk said. Besides, as Biden himself conceded, it was the collusion related to Ukraine that provoked the first ever ousting of a House speaker in US history, said the Ukrainian politician, who used to be the leader of the Opposition Platform - For Life party in Ukraine before it was banned.
"Taking Biden’s word about everlasting aid to Ukraine hasn’t worked out. Against the background of agricultural embargoes by neighboring countries, Zelensky has once again demonstrated his incompetence and ineffectiveness in defending national interests," Medvedchuk wrote in a column on the website Smotrim.ru.
He said Ukraine under Zelensky "once and for all surrendered its financial sovereignty to the US and the IMF, becoming dependent on foreign loans." He went on to say that Ukraine cannot sustain itself financially without foreign funding.
"With the new US budget, there is a risk of running a $3.3 billion budget deficit in the fourth quarter of this year and failure to meet Ukraine's budget expenditures (such as the system of subsidies and development programs)," he said. "Money from across the ocean is the only hope for salvation. <...> And if the Americans do not give this money, there will be nowhere else to get it."
According to Medvedchuk, given the economic downturn and crisis in Germany’s energy-intensive industries, as well as the recession in some other eurozone economies, the government will be forced to downsize some major expenditure items.
"And it’s not just another sarcastic remark by Elon Musk, but a modern-day apocalyptic reality for the short-sighted and deeply corrupt Zelensky," he said.