MOSCOW, September 9. /TASS/. Higher and higher taxes in Ukraine are putting ordinary citizens in the poorhouse, said Viktor Medvedchuk, former leader of the Opposition Platform-For Life party, which is banned in Ukraine, and current head of the Other Ukraine movement.

"The illegitimate Zelensky has shown that he is not only an inept military strategist but also has no idea how to manage the economy. This political joker is surrounded by economic novices who expect the people to foot the bill for their extravagant purchases and at sky-high prices, no less," the politician wrote in an opinion column on the smotrim.ru media platform. "Not only is Zelensky going haywire by making military decisions which have already brought down the frontline in Donbass, he is also actively destroying Ukraine’s economy, hurting all those citizens who have as yet not been able to leave it and the gross incompetence of the criminal regime governing the country," he added.

Medvedchuk noted that "during martial law, Zelensky has been actively raising prices," for example, by signing a bill on raising excise duties on gas, diesel and autogas, "keeping mum that European curators were the ones to demand the increase in fuel prices." Additionally, the Verkhovna Rada is considering a draft bill on raising the military tax for private entrepreneurs while exempting banks from the tax hike, "that is, Zelensky’s criminal government is doing all it can to squeeze every penny out of Ukrainian citizens, citing martial law," the politician explained.

"Zelensky does not give a red cent for the interests of the Ukrainian people whom he drove to poverty and genocide," Medvedchuk noted. "He is steering the country toward an economic abyss, having sold out Ukraine’s interests, its land, its people, its sovereignty, and independence to Western handlers," he added.

"As a politician, military commander and economist, he is utterly worthless, and the Ukrainian people have every right to put him on trial for this," the politician concluded.