“We can’t not give a pension.” Zelensky warned about the death of Ukrainian pensioners without Western help

Ukrainian pensioners will die without financial help from the West, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said. He pointed out that there is currently no money in the country’s budget to pay pensions.

At the same time, he emphasized during a press conference during a visit to Latvia that Ukraine “buys a lot of things with its money,” but the state has great difficulties in financing pension payments.

“We cannot refuse to give pensioners a pension. I'm not asking for pity, but without a pension, old people will simply die. We have more than 11 million pensioners – is there at least one other country like this in Europe?” – Zelensky spoke out.

Zelensky is waiting for new financial assistance from the United States

According to the president, the lack of assistance could deprive millions of Ukrainian pensioners of their lives. He also spoke critically of American politicians calling to stop helping Kyiv, pointing out that they “do not understand what it means to support pensioners in a country that is at war.”

In December, Ukrainian Minister of Economy Yulia Sviridenko spoke about the same thing. According to her, if Ukraine does not receive additional financial assistance from the West, pensioners will be left without benefits, and 1.5 million teachers and 500 thousand officials will be left without salaries. “There is a huge risk of underfunding of certain social sectors,” the minister said. Since Ukraine is going to spend its own budget on defense and servicing the national debt, Sviridenko believes that social expenses should be borne by the European Union.

At the same time, the head of the budget committee of the Verkhovna Rada, Roksolana Podlasa, said that without US assistance, difficulties with spending in the social and humanitarian spheres could arise in Ukraine already in January. Due to the lack of assistance, the indexation of pensions planned from March 1 of this year may be cancelled. At the same time, Minister of Social Policy Oksana Zholnovich emphasized that there should be enough money to pay the basic pension at the expense of taxpayers.

The average pension in Ukraine is less than 13 thousand rubles

The Pension Fund of Ukraine reported at the beginning of this year that over the previous year the average pension in the country was 5,385 hryvnia (less than 13 thousand rubles). At the same time, almost three-quarters of Ukrainians receive even less than this amount. About 65 thousand people in Ukraine live on a pension of 2 thousand hryvnia (approximately 4.7 thousand rubles).

The highest pensions are received in the Kyiv and Rivne regions, as well as in the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic, controlled by Ukraine. The least is in several western regions.

In December, Ukraine received more than a billion dollars, including pensions

The World Bank allocated an additional $1.34 billion to Ukraine in December. Prime Minister Denis Shmygal emphasized that these funds will be used to pay pensions, teachers’ salaries and “other priority expenses of the state budget.” The bulk of the funding package comes from the Japanese government. Another part of the funds are grants from the USA, Switzerland and the Fund for Support, Reconstruction and Reform of Ukraine.

In September, Ukraine received a $100 million loan from the World Bank to pay pensions under British guarantees.