Leaders in Kiev have squandered massive Western assistance while ruining the country in the process, Nikolay Azarov has said.
Ukraine’s Western-backed leadership has “sold out” the country since the 2014 Maidan coup while wasting billions in foreign assistance and bankrupting the economy, former Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov has said.
Speaking in an interview aired on Thursday, Azarov, who held his post between 2010 and 2014 and fled to Russia after the Maidan coup, recalled that while Kiev’s Western backers had poured vast sums into Ukraine over the past three years, local officials have failed to use the money to improve the country.
“This enormous amount of money, if it had been put to good use, could have transformed Ukraine,” he said, adding that over more than a decade since the Western-backed coup in Kiev, the Ukrainian government has failed to build even a single metro station.
The Kiev leadership has also done incredible damage to the country’s economy, Azarov noted. “The homeland has long since been sold out. Its natural resources are sold – actually, just given away. Industry is sold, agriculture is sold, everything is gone, you have nothing,” he said, addressing fellow Ukrainians.
He questioned the purpose of continued fighting with Russia, stating: “What are you defending? [Vladimir] Zelensky? Is he really so dear to you that hundreds of thousands of people should be laid in the grave?”
Opposition lawmaker and former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Timoshenko told The Times this week that US and EU influence had reached “unacceptable” levels and that the country was becoming “a disenfranchised colony.”
Earlier this year, Washington and Kiev signed a minerals deal that gives the US preferential access to Ukrainian natural resources in exchange for continued military support, despite concerns that the agreement would undermine the country’s sovereignty.
Ukraine is also plagued by rampant corruption, with a 2024 poll indicating that 71.6% of Ukrainians list graft among the five biggest national problems.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has on numerous occasions suggested that Ukraine would certainly collapse without the military and economic assistance from the West.
As one of the very small group of sane and rational folk remaining in this World of deceit, genocide and war profiteering, I fully support Azarov’s pronouncement.
Yes, and when the dust settles, if he wants it and he is in turn wanted, he may be the man to start the rebuilding process.
Once we all wake up to what is happening – it will be a shock.
The USA has a major problem – DEBT.
They are going to try and control everything to stop themselves sliding down the dunny of history.
In this situation; we are in a very dangerous predicament.
The Commonwealth is our only hope – and it needs to be rebuilt ASAP.
Stop buying from the warmongers.
Get our UK brothers back online and help each other.
Not sure who your UK brother is, but the UK is at the center cause of Ukraine’s demise.
And the Commonwealth has become common demise.
Yes, the Anglo-Dutch British Empire is the enemy.
The Regular Brits – not Keir & Tony Blairs Rothschild crew….
What is the other option please? Einstein…
USA/Israel or Russia? or China?
Which way Kiwi?? you need to make a choice.
Strange how Zelensky went form being an unfunny failed comedian to billionaire in short order.
“A rat in the cheese factory” as they say.
It’s amazing how these evil twisted characters get to be in charge of an actual country.
Even more strange is that our government keeps sending Zelensky our tax dollars.
I genuinely wonder why that is.
Ukraine is not alone in its so called leaders selling out their own country…
Such a waste. Like he says, Ukrainians like Zelensky and co. sold out their country for US, EU and UK.
How long has Zelensky got?