Ukraine itself should handle the distribution of money donated by European states to help Ukrainian refugees, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with the German TV channel ARD.
Read also: Zelenskyy warns of redistribution of power in the world if US stops helping Ukraine
This way, he says, the money would support the Ukrainian economy.
According to Zelenskyy, “If the government wants to help Ukrainians, then there we should take into account the following situation – for example, a person left and is living abroad, receives financial aid from Germany.”
“This person might even receive aid from both countries. This is the reason why I have always said that it would be much better if Germany supported Ukrainians by transferring money to Ukraine’s budget. Ukraine would then redistribute this money depending on where this person is located.”
Currently, a portion of Ukraine’s money remains in Europe, since Ukrainians took their money with them when they fled the war. When Europe began to support Ukrainian refugees, the money that was allocated to support Ukrainians remained in those other countries.
“Our money and European money ultimately remained where the citizens of Ukraine resided,” Zelenskyy said.
“That is, outside the territory of Ukraine. I have no questions. I just wish we would pay more attention to this. When the whole world is talking about financial support for Ukrainians, I would like to pay attention to where the majority of this money remains.”
The issue of Ukrainian refugees is not to be understood in generalized terms, he asserted.
“A lot of different details have to be taken into account here: there are people who left for various reasons and had legal reasons and opportunities to leave, there are people who are beyond mobilization age, there are those who had left earlier, there are students.”
Those citizens who return to Ukraine, work, pay taxes, raise the economy and help the army are much appreciated, the President added.
“German Chancellor Olaf Scholz cannot take someone and return them to Ukraine or expel them from Germany… We must act in accordance with the law even with respect to violators,” said Zelenskyy.
The Ukrainian government has initiated negotiations with partners regarding help for refugees returning to Ukraine, said Taras Kachka, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Economy and Trade Representative on Jan. 18 at a panel discussion at Ukraine House in Davos.
Germany could redirect part of the social assistance to Ukrainian refugees to support their return to Ukraine, according to him.
The West should stop supporting Ukrainians who fled the war, said Advisor of President Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Serhiy Leshchenko later.
Read also: National Bank of Ukraine anticipates decrease in currency outflow due to migrants
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