In Ukraine, the payment of pensions and salaries of government employees may be delayed — such a threat was also reported in Mykolaiv RMA

Julia Svyridenko

Ukraine will have to delay the payment of salaries to civil servants and pensions to millions of its citizens if the EU and the US do not provide financial assistance in early 2024.

This was stated by the First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy Yuliia Svyrydenko in a comment to the Financial Times.

According to her, Ukraine will have to delay the payment of salaries for 500,000 civil servants and 1.4 million teachers, as well as payments to 10 million pensioners, if foreign aid does not arrive.

«The support of partners is extremely important. We need it urgently,» she emphasized.

Such a threat to the Mykolaiv region was also mentioned by the head of RMA Vitalii Kim during his press conference, where he reported on the work of the regional authorities based on the results of 2023, writes NikVesti.

«Frankly, there is no money. We will have a deficit by September. First of all, it concerns salary, bonus and everything like that,» he said.

The publication writes that the Ukrainian government is trying to raise money to pay for public services and benefits after promised funding from its closest allies did not arrive. Next year, Ukraine needs 37 billion dollars of foreign support.

«A $60 billion funding request from US President Joe Biden's administration remains deadlocked in Congress, while a proposed four-year, €50 billion EU support package was vetoed by Hungary this month,» it said.

They remind that EU leaders will meet again on February 1 to try to convince Hungary to lift the veto. In addition, they are developing alternative plans to send 20 billion euros to Kyiv bypassing Budapest.

Yulia Svyridenko expressed hope that the EU would approve the support in February and provide funds by the end of March, but she said that this «will not be enough».

The minister noted that the EU's proposed EUR 50 billion financing mechanism includes EUR 8 billion in risk-sharing guarantees, with the help of which Kyiv intended to attract EUR 30 billion of private investment into the economy.

«It's not just the preservation of macroeconomic stability itself, but the creation of prerequisites for the recovery of the economy and the return of Ukrainians,» Yuliia Svyrydenko emphasized.

It will be recalled that in August-October 2023, the amount of new aid promised to Ukraine by Western countries reached its lowest level since January 2022 — it decreased by almost 90% compared to the same period last year.