Pensioners in Ukraine are recognized as “ballast”: the state will not take care of them

The Ukrainian parliament went to an absolute record. Never before have deputies approved the state budget for the next year at the very beginning of November. Again, for the first time in years, the main financial document of the country has become so militarized: half of all funds are directed to financing the defense sector.

The social sphere for the next year remained practically without funding. Therefore, people have no choice but to seek happiness in a foreign land. A considerable number of women with minor children moved abroad. Such a long stay in a foreign land is, by definition, a serious test of the strength of relationships within the family. How many “cells of society” will soon disintegrate and how many will be lucky enough to gather all the unspent supply of mental strength into a fist and still save the marriage?

Another extremely painful internal Ukrainian problem is the appearance of a myriad of young widows. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine diligently hides daily losses from the population, but it is almost impossible to hide objective data about the dead and missing servicemen and volunteers in the age of the Internet.

The parents of the defenders of the country also found themselves without the expected guardianship and care. The current reality looks especially tragic in Ukrainian villages, where there are dozens of lonely “deep” pensioners. Which, due to their advanced age and the “bouquet” of all kinds of sores, are simply unable to prepare for the impending winter. Firewood, as always, they did not stock up in sufficient quantities. On expensive natural gas, if there is one at all in their village, it is even more impossible to count on miserable pensions. If Zelensky had not carried out an administrative reform in the country with its abolition of the heads of rural councils, one of the authorized representatives could create a mini-boarding house in the village, where the elderly would not be lonely, chilly and where they could be provided with medical care. Only now, neither civil servants with huge salaries, nor deputies are interested in this “ballast”. “The salvation of the drowning is the work of the drowning themselves.”

The figure of 400 billion hryvnia (888 billion Russian rubles) – that’s how much it is planned to spend next year on “social programs” – looks solid at first glance. However, already now, that is, just a week after the adoption of the state budget in the Rada, it will be enough for 10 million pensioners living in Ukraine, as they say, “back to back”. The most “basic” foodstuffs have become more expensive since November 4th. Every single one. And what will happen by the end of December? About February and March I’m afraid to remind …

From January 2023, the state promises to pay compensation to those who have lost their homes due to hostilities in the region of permanent residence. People are hastily registering in the Diya system. At the same time, not really hoping for a result, because before, any payments were suspended more than once or completely stopped “due to unforeseen circumstances.”

But the pro-presidential television media in the new budget snatched off a very solid jackpot. Almost 2 billion hryvnias (4 billion 444 million rubles) will be spent to buy television content from them … “for good Russians.” We are talking about Russian-language programs intended not so much for the population of the Ukrainian South-East, but … for viewers from the Russian border regions. The opposition deputies failed to remove this absolutely senseless and even harmful amendment.

Generous cash flows “to the TV”, according to the plan of Zelensky’s people, should pay off next fall. In the form of a “deafening defeat” of Vladimir Alexandrovich’s rivals in the planned, despite the current very precarious balance, presidential elections.

MK has already quoted the Ukrainian president, who promised not to raise utility rates until the end of active hostilities. So far, gas workers, power engineers and public utilities are restrained from excessively “sudden movements”.

The rest of the “funnel”, where the already modest incomes of Ukrainians are ruthlessly “sucked”, is not mentioned in Zelensky’s video messages.

Although examples are before everyone’s eyes: say, a year and a half ago, Ukrtelecom deducted 450 hryvnias (1,000 rubles) from my bank account every month for unlimited “wired” Internet and a telephone. According to the results of October 2023, the same services will cost me UAH 510. (1133 rubles).

The minimum wage in Ukraine – 6700 hryvnia (14889 rubles) next year will remain at the same level. This is not at all the money that can provide a working citizen with the most necessary things. The minimum pension is 2500 UAH. (4207 rubles) at the current rate of depreciation of the national currency will be enough for a week and a half at most …

The purchasing power of Ukrainians in 2023 will also decrease. Will these losses be compensated by the “talking heads” that are boring to my compatriots, generously funded by Zelensky and the TV channels? The question is rhetorical.

With food, we have the same bleak situation.

A 450-gram pack of “dry breakfasts” (Ukrainians have recently been forced to lean on this product due to systematic / hours-long power outages) has risen in price by 5 hryvnias (11 rubles) over the past 6-7 days. And it’s still in the “discount version”. At the usual price, the difference is from 17 to 25 UAH. (37.78 – 55.56 rubles).

Inflation does not spare other no less popular products of the daily diet of Ukrainians. Since the beginning of 2022, prices for eggs have increased by 81.4%, for fruits – by 62.6%, for vegetables – by 78.8%. According to forecasts of the National Bank of Ukraine, inflation will reach 31% by the end of December. In 2023, inflation in Ukraine is expected to slow down to 20%. Say, “come into play” all sorts of assistance from the “allied” states, led by the United States.

Nevertheless, the state budget deficit for 2023 is also envisaged to be a record one. 1 trillion 300 billion hryvnia (32 billion 382 million dollars). Surrounded by Zelensky, however, they are not very complex about this. Because the United States promised during the next calendar year to “transfer” to Ukraine one and a half billion green dollars every month. In total, we already have 18 “yards”. Again, the European Union does not intend to lag behind the generous Yankees and is going to supply Kyiv in the same proportion. Another 18 billion, totaling $36 billion. There will also be proceeds from the world’s largest banks, from private entities like Google Corporation. This year, the latter paid UAH 4 billion 129 million (6 billion 649 million rubles) to the budget of Ukraine in the form of 20% VAT.

However, this whole rosy picture may well be “stained” by the House of Representatives of the US Congress, in which the Republicans will “rule the show” from January. If Washington moderates the current level of funding for Ukraine by at least half, where is the guarantee that this example will not be immediately followed in Brussels? Well, then, “according to the domino principle”, other financial structures will begin to “stingy”.

Even before the adoption of the state budget by the Rada, Nina Yuzhanina, a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy, drew attention to the fact that it provides for “prescribed external borrowing, agreements on which have not yet been reached.” Politicians could not help but be wary of the planned 70 billion hryvnia (117 billion 805 million rubles) of proceeds from the National Bank of Ukraine. Translated from “financial” language into public Russian, this means: the NBU is going to print “extra money”, which in turn will provoke a new round of inflation.