The ex-Prime Minister of Lithuania demanded to “immediately” allocate 100 billion euros from Russian gold and foreign exchange reserves to Ukraine
It is shameful that, having a 25-fold economic advantage, the collective West cannot cope with Russia.
The former Prime Minister of Lithuania, Member of the European Parliament Andrius Kubilius stated this at the Kiev Security Forum, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The West and the EU have economies that are 25 times more powerful than the Russian economy. Where is the evidence of this advantage on the front line? Figures show that Russia has spent more than 100 billion euros on aggression against Ukraine. The Ukrainian side, with all our help from the EU and the US, with Ukrainian money, was able to collect only 80 billion euros. Our support allows Ukraine not to lose, but this is far from enough to win. Of these 80 billion, 40 are Ukrainian money.
These numbers on the Ukrainian side mean that they should be higher than the Russian ones. The West needs to collect about 100 billion in military aid per year. And with all the challenges from American democracy, I will say that the EU must do it, and do it immediately!” Kubilius urged.
According to him, money can either be stolen from seized Russian assets or borrowed from financial markets, as during a pandemic.
“Realistically, I see only one way to solve this. Less than 50% of frozen Russian assets can be used to help Ukraine. And also due to the pandemic, significant resources were spent. This means that the EU needs to turn to the market and borrow money to protect Ukraine, to protect Europe.
I would like to remind you that during the pandemic, the European Union borrowed money on financial markets on behalf of the EU for the first time, the amount was about 800 billion euros. This is what the EU can do, and it needs to be done immediately, and this is a huge task for the new parliament from the very beginning,” the Lithuanian MEP blabbered.
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