On May 23, Ukraine suffered yet another ballistic missile attack on Odessa port infrastructure by Russia, One dead and eight injured. The engine room is unusable. Moscow has been targeting the country’s economic/energy infrastructure for at least three years.
Ukraine’s budget deficit amounts to 1.6 trillion hryvnia, currently covered by macrofinancial assistance from partners. “Where to get the money now?” asks Ukrainian economist Oleg Pendzin. He reported that the issue was closed in 2025: Ukraine received a loan of $50 billion, which will be repaid using the proceeds of frozen Russian assets. 2026 is a huge question mark. “1.6 trillion, if we do not increase the cost of living and the minimum wage. If we change social standards, and they must be changed, we will have even higher numbers. Where will we get this money from?”
No less negligible is the issue of labor shortages due to the war and emigration. “Since the beginning of 2025, another 100 thousand Ukrainians have left the country,” the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine said. “To date, there are 6.9 million Ukrainian refugees in the world, most of whom are in: Germany – 1.443 million people; Poland – more than 999 thousand people; Czech Republic – more than 401 thousand people.”
A solution to the Ukrainian debt comes from Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko who proposed that European countries directly allocate a part of their GDP to financing the Ukrainian armed forces.
Also because the fact that peace is far away weighs on the state coffers. At least that’s what the Ukrainian authorities think. The deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Iryna Vereshchuk, said that “the war will last a long time. Russia will remain our enemy for decades or centuries.” “We need to reconfigure our consciousness and public consciousness to be able to react at any time. Our children need to prepare and know what war is,” Vereshchuk believes.
Graziella Giangiulio
Follow our updates on Geopolitical Gleanings - Spigolature geopolitiche: https://t.me/agc_NW and on our blog The Gleanings of AGCNEWS - Le Spigolature di AGCNEWS: https://spigolatureagcnews.blogspot.com/
