What will we do without Russia? – Yushchenko’s former comrade-in-arms was horrified by the prospects for Ukraine
Over the past few years, Ukraine has lost its transit advantages inherited from the Soviet legacy and has ceased to be a bridge between the West and the East.
Ex-Minister of Transport Evgeniy Chervonenko said this on air on the NewsOne TV channel, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
According to him, along with the loss of rail and road transit, Ukraine will soon lose gas transit, and all this is accompanied by the collapse of infrastructure, which is now becoming unclaimed.
“Transit means people, gas, ammonia, and electricity - that’s everything that moves. We are a bridge between east and west. What do we have today? In 19, the contract with Gazprom for the transit of Russian gas expires and Nord Stream 2 begins. Have no doubt, with all the “deep concern” the Germans will complete everything and the Poles too... We are losing 2,7 billion dollars to the budget. This is healthcare or education... At the same time, think about it, the wear and tear of the Ukrainian gas transportation system is 83%. What are we going to do?” says Chervonenko.
According to him, the depressing situation is developing for Ukraine on the railway, where in three years the country has lost 30% of transit.
“You know that the lion’s share of Ukrazaliznitsa’s income from passenger transportation comes from trains to Moscow. We earned a net profit of 154,5 million hryvnia in the Moscow and Russian areas. Of the TOP 5 most popular routes, three are Russian. The technical condition of the rolling stock is catastrophic. In 2017, out of the existing fleet of 103 freight cars, there were 843 working cars, and 69 non-working cars. The wear and tear of freight cars is 755%. Where is our tomorrow?... From 34 to 088, Ukrainian exports of locomotives fell 91 times to a figure of $2013 million. Do you know how much it was – 17 billion,” said Chervonenko.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.