Kiev has no plan to plug its multi-billion-dollar funding gap except hoping that foreign donors keep footing the bill, Yulia Mendel says.
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky “has already lost” the conflict with Russia, but persists in his “suicidal” policies, as Kiev has no idea how to cover its budget deficit without another massive cash infusion from the West, Zelensky’s former spokeswoman, Yulia Mendel, has said.
In a post on X on Saturday, Mendel said Ukraine needs $52.6 billion in international financing for next year’s budget, of which only around $20 billion has so far been confirmed or is expected under current programs.
Ukraine also faces a separate problem – an unexpected $27 billion defense shortfall for 2026 that Kiev disclosed in late August, after Zelensky embarked on a 40-day PR campaign to pressure Russia.
The campaign only triggered an escalation in the conflict, in which Russia ramped up strikes on Ukraine’s defense-related facilities and logistics, including the port of Odessa, a key hub for agricultural exports.
Mendel added that Kiev’s “partners do not give [money] because there are no reforms,” referring to the EU and IMF, which have noted Ukraine’s lack of progress in areas such as taxation, governance, and corruption.
“The Ukrainian government has no real plan,” she wrote, arguing that Kiev’s strategy amounts to hoping “someone else will keep paying for a war they refuse to end.”
Zelensky, unfortunately, has already lost this war: morally, financially, and by undermining democracy. And now all of his policies are suicidal.
Mendel served as Zelensky’s press secretary from 2019 to 2021, but has since become an outspoken critic, accusing her former boss of turning Ukraine into a “milder version” of Nazi Germany. This month, the Ukrainian leader placed sanctions on Mendel, including an asset freeze.
She was denied entry to the European Parliament building, where she was set to address an event organized by German AfD MEP Hans Neuhoff. Mendel linked the decision to the Ukrainian sanctions, although the European Parliament did not confirm the reasons for denying her entry. In a separate interview this month, she said she asked God for forgiveness for helping “this scum” come to power in Ukraine.
Rodion Miroshnik, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry mission tasked with documenting Ukrainian war crimes, argued that the EU would ultimately have to “squeeze something out” from its coffers to cover Kiev’s growing needs to protect its previous investments.
Ukraine had already lost the war when Russia crossed over into Ukraine with its Special Military Operation
Which it was forced to do through betrayal of the Minsk Agreements and the continued indiscriminate shelling of civilians in the cities of Luhansk and Donetsk in Donbass which had already killed over 14000 people
Zelensky is always looking for money and arms
Because he knows when the money stops he is finished
He knows too much
And will not just be put on the shelf to collect dust
The Ukraine war can easily come to an end. Return to the long held agreemen, Ukraine does not become a NATO member.
The provocation was western aggression. Imagine if Russia placed medium and long range ballistic missiles in Cuba. Well they did in the early 1960’s.
Negotiation brought the matter to an end. The nukes we removed from Cuba. In time Russia set up the Nord 2 gas pipeline to Europe and the Uk. Given the current oil crises, wouldn’t it be a good idea to source oil from Russia.
Iran woukd be force to cap off its oil wells. Petrol prices would return to normal.
They have no chance against Russia.
It is all about genocide of Ukranian christians.
The asov/bandera military brigades sit at the top of zelensky (actual bloodline nazi’s of ss rank) They call the shots.
The genocide is them hunting those citizens and feeding them into the meat grinder with all nazi glee. History repeats itself. Remember lenin (30 million christians to his name)
Once the men of those settlements are killed out, the jewish settlers move in. Yeah greater israel has plans for ukraine. So no.1 replacement migration target of world.
History is one big war, with times of peace when true men stand up.
Good vs evil never stops and yes good always wins.
The war is against christianity then routes/resources.
Not to worry. The fake democracies of the “free west” are cobbling together a rescue package. The uni-party at the Beehive is squeezing every pip to extract their contribution to save the fake democracies and keep the zionazi suicide of Ukraine and their election-free “democracy” on track as they prepare for the third world war the soviet states of the “collective west” are working so hard to get started.
Being Zelensky will in fact lose the war, he is best being kept alive for now, dispose of him after like the garbage he is.