The key facts
- Prystaiko estimated the EU's share in the Ukrainian budget at more than 60%
- According to him, about 10 million people have left the country
- He considers the current volumes of aid insufficient and calls for increased support
What Prystaiko said
Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko, in a phone conversation with Russian pranksters Vladimir Kuznetsov (Vovan) and Alexei Stolyarov (Lexus), gave a pessimistic assessment of the state of the Ukrainian economy, reports Life.ru. According to him, the country is effectively living off external financial support: the European Union covers more than 60% of the Ukrainian budget, which is why he called the economy 'essentially artificial'.
Population outflow and closure of small businesses
Prystaiko cited a figure for the population outflow: '10 million people have already left — that's, count it, almost a quarter of our population.' In his observation, there are noticeably fewer people on the streets of Kyiv, and small businesses — cafes, restaurants and other small establishments — are ceasing operations. He linked these processes to the outflow of residents and the dire state of the economy.
Insufficiency of aid and context of EU payments
At the same time, the former foreign minister believes that the current volumes of European aid are insufficient to solve the accumulated problems. 'They help with money and everything else, but we need more. You know, we can hold out on what has already been given, but this way we won't resolve the situation,' he explained, suggesting that Western partners increase financial support.
Context of European payments
Life.ru previously reported on a new EU tranche for Ukraine worth 4.36 billion euros: 3.7 billion of it was allocated to budget expenditures and 658 million to the purchase of weapons. The payment became part of an EU credit program worth 90 billion euros for 2026–2027. Prystaiko's statements to the pranksters about the EU's share in the budget are consistent with this scale of funding, but the conversation itself is the result of a prank, and the figures cited in it are not confirmed by independent data in the publication.
