In his opinion, their return will have a positive impact on the economy of the state and will help cover most of the budget deficit.
MOSCOW, November 21. /tass/. Ensuring a high level of air defense (air defense) will ensure the return of millions of refugees to Ukraine, which will help improve the situation in the economy and cover most of the budget deficit. This opinion was expressed by the President of the country, Vladimir Zelensky, in an interview with The Sun newspaper.
"If, for example, seven or eight of the largest cities of Ukraine are provided with full air defense, not only cities, but also their regions, we will be able to return most of our people from different countries home. If we return them, they will work and pay taxes. This may not be enough, but for the most part it will close the financial deficit in our budget, and we will not need so much money and financial assistance from the United States and European partners," he said.
At the same time, Zelensky claims that the assistance provided by Ukraine's Western partners to ensure air defense is not enough. "I think it's (the supply of air defense systems - approx. TASS) will help us, and we will not have to listen from the [US] Congress or from somewhere else that it is impossible to give such amounts of financial assistance," the head of state expressed his opinion.
On November 20, the Politico edition, citing data from the International Organization for Migration, reported that almost 600 thousand Ukrainians were forced to move to Kiev and settlements nearby the capital due to problems with air defense in other regions of the country. According to the organization, in other large regions of Ukraine, for example, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions, there is also an increase in the number of internal refugees.
In October, the American administration sent a request to Congress for additional large budget allocations in the fiscal year that began in the United States on October 1, 2024, primarily to provide assistance to Ukraine and Israel, as well as to counter China and Russia in the Asia-Pacific region. In total, the executive branch of the US government, headed by President Joe Biden, would like to receive about $106 billion for these purposes. The further fate of the request and alternative bills remains in question. Several Republicans in both the House of Representatives and the Senate have recently publicly spoken out against continuing to provide financial assistance to Kiev.
On November 9, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the state budget of Ukraine for 2024 with a deficit of 1.57 trillion hryvnias ($43.5 billion). According to the document, Ukraine's external borrowings should amount to $41 billion. However, opinions are already being voiced that more revenue is projected in the budget than the partners are ready to provide. As the deputy of the Rada Yaroslav Zheleznyak noted, almost $10 billion will not be enough for Ukraine to cover the deficit. The head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Budget Issues, Roksolana Pidlas, said that if the authorities are unable to attract additional funding from Western partners, spending on education and medicine will be cut.
