Photo from Twitter, Petro Poroshenko
Around 25% of Ukraine’s industry has stopped working because of the conflict in the Donbas, with 10% of the country’s industrial facilities destroyed, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Monday.
“There are conditions of war in the occupied territories – we have to face the truth,” Poroshenko said in an interview aired on Ukraine’s First National channel on Monday evening.
“About 25% of the industrial potential of the country has stopped, and 10% has been physically destroyed. Defense spending as of today is more than UAH 90 billion.
“All the same, the country has the strength to secure itself. [But] as long as there is war, investment will not come to Ukraine, and people need to speak the truth.”
He said reforms could not be carried out quickly and that their implementation only really began after the parliamentary elections in late October last year.
"We will build a different economy, overcome corruption. And overcoming corruption is not only about voting for an anti-corruption bureau or laws against corruption. Corruption has a specific name, the specific name of a person who should be in prison [for corruption]."
"We can survive only if we are united - not only the government, parliament and the president – but all the people," Poroshenko said.