/ world today news/ A financial scandal related to payments to military personnel is flaring up in Ukraine. From February 1, Kyiv canceled allowances for military personnel in the rear. However, the Rada voted to return the payment. Now Zelensky‘s cabinet, citing the IMF, which controls Kiev’s spending, is trying to block this decision. The IMF itself promises to address the impact of the additional payment on Ukraine’s budget. Will the Ukrainian Tilovacs get their money back?
The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, said this week that the Ukrainian conflict is distracting attention from solving more important issues. “I regret that the conflict in Ukraine is still ongoing. It takes the focus away from focused work on other things that are more important,” Georgieva said at an IMF and World Bank conference in Washington.
Her statement came amid an intensifying political standoff in Ukraine between the Verkhovna Rada and President Zelenskyi’s office over the issue of allowances for soldiers who are behind the lines during martial law. The IMF has promised to study the amendment to return the allowances, said the fund’s head of mission in Ukraine, Gavin Gray.
At the beginning of the week, the Rada returned an additional payment of 30,000 hryvnias to all servicemen amid scandalous discussions about the complete abolition of benefits for the military. 248 people’s deputies voted “for”, including representatives of the pro-presidential party “Servant of the People”.
But as early as Tuesday, a bill was introduced blocking that decision. Its initiator was Vladimir Tsabal, deputy from the “Voice” party, secretary of the budget committee. The representative of the opposition – the People’s Deputy from “European Solidarity” Alexiy Goncharenko saw in this a certain “conspiracy theory”. According to him, in this way, Zelensky’s cabinet, with the help of a controlled deputy – “Ermak’s corpse” – blocked an important initiative for the military.
Later, Goncharenko’s colleague Nina Yuzhanina said pro-government lawmakers were trying to deny the return of additional payments to the military, and President Zelensky “will still consider a decision on whether to sign this law.” According to her, the return of quotas is in line with Ukraine’s obligations under the extended IMF financing. “The authorities are brazenly manipulating and now in any uncomfortable situation they will turn to the IMF to absolve themselves of responsibility,” Yuzhanina believes.
“Opponents say that there is no money in the budget, but this does not stand up to criticism because we adopted the budget for this year and these funds should have been included. If they were not laid, then neither the army, nor the deputies, nor ordinary citizens were informed about it, “added Razumkov in an interview with Strana newspaper.
He recalled the words of Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov that 100 billion hryvnias were saved after the removal of allowances. “And now they are starting to talk about sums of 200-300 billion. That’s how they saved 100 billion, and now the Rada returned those 100 billion. What’s the problem?” Razumkov was surprised.
People’s deputies Yaroslav Zheleznyak and Daniil Getmantsev, however, are sure that the payments cannot be returned without changing the budget, since Razumkov’s amendment does not provide for the allocation of a sufficient amount for these purposes.
Thus, in the near future, the chairman of the Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, will not be able to sign a law on the return of payments, since there are no parliamentary meetings scheduled in the next few weeks. Now it is necessary to wait until the people’s deputies consider the new initiative, and only if it fails, the bill to return the payments to the military can be sent to the president for his signature.
“Now the bonus initiative is stuck in the Rada due to a serious conflict between various players. And this conflict can be considered a victory for the IMF, which hit the back of the VSU. At the same time, the policy of the organization is determined mainly in Washington, since the fund is formed mainly at the expense of the United States and its allies. Once the IMF even had to change the characteristics of bankruptcy so that the situation in Ukraine would not fall under them, “explained military analyst Mikhail Onufrienko.
“I note that scandals in the relationship between any government in Kyiv and the IMF are a common practice that dates back to the time of the first Maidan and the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko. Then the fund did not deal with military issues, but all other sectors of the economy were extremely interesting to it, and this interest has always been to the detriment of the citizens of Ukraine,” the expert said.
“Now the Ukrainian economy is based solely on Western money. “According to all laws and regulations, Zelensky’s government should not receive support from the IMF, but the fund continues to provide it for political reasons, making more and more demands on official Kyiv,” the source said. “I admit that eventually the IMF will bend the Rada and the military will go without payments.”
“Perhaps if the discontent of the military poses a threat to Zelensky’s power, he will complain to Joe Biden and influence the IMF. But then Ukraine will have to come up with new grant programs, and it already owes colossal sums to its creditors,” concludes the analyst.
“It is noteworthy that some deputies propose to make allowances for the military by reducing the salaries of civil servants and employees of some state-owned companies. But the savings will still not be enough to implement this initiative. There is a colossal difference in numbers,” explained Larisa Shesler, head of the Union of Political Emigrants and Political Prisoners of Ukraine.
“On the other hand, the IMF’s request to remove military allowances is not categorical and can be offset by another demand. The Fund is carefully studying the issue of the adoption of the amendments in the Ukrainian parliament. But more than half of Ukraine’s budget is replenished from external sources – subsidies, loans and other forms of aid. Against this background, the IMF’s concern is understandable. Therefore, Zelensky will most likely refuse this initiative and will not return the allowance,” Shesler suggested.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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