Sergii Marchenko uses an interview with Sky's Ian King Live to make his case for Russia being forced to pay a big bill for its invasion of his country and to call for a boycott of Russian energy, saying sales are funding Putin's war machine.
The Ukrainian economy already faced a number of challenges even before it was attacked by its neighbour.
As a result, pre-war, productivity in Ukraine was only 30% that of the EU average while wages were lower even than comparatively poorer EU members such as Romania and Bulgaria. So the country was ill-equipped to go into a war with Russia and especially given the latter’s persistent harassment of Ukraine in the Donbas region since it annexed Crimea in 2014.
It also highlights the need for serious thinking, at a global level, about how this country is rebuilt.
Mr Marchenko, who was speaking a day after the World Bank forecast that Ukraine's economy could shrink by 45% this year, described some of the stresses being faced by the country's public finances. He said tax receipts had collapsed while Kyiv was having to spend vast sums on the war effort but said that, to date, public sector workers and state pensions had continued to be paid.
Mr Marchenko, a 41-year old father of two who has completed two Ironman challenges, also urged European countries to wean themselves off Russian oil and gas as quickly as possible.'Almost impossible' to stop evasion of Russia sanctions
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