“We will be left without heat. It’s time to bow to Russia” – Kiev economist
An increase in gas prices will primarily affect public sector institutions, which will lead, among other things, to the closure of schools under the pretext of a pandemic.
Sergei Salivon, director of the economic policy department of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine, said this in a conversation on the Capital channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“This will affect the entire budget sector. State employees will now be asked to pay for heat based on the gas price of 30 thousand hryvnia per 1000 cubic meters. Of course, this is not included in the budget. Accordingly, state employees will not be able to pay for this,” says Salivon.
"What are the options? The first is that budgetary organizations, schools, hospitals will be without heating, wild debts will accumulate, and an imbalance will arise in the heat and gas market. They will probably look for options to keep people at home. Probably, under the pretext of Covid, schools are closed. But this will only be under the pretext of Covid; in fact, there will simply be no money to pay for heating. Well, probably, areas such as education will probably be decommunized. Eliminated,” the expert predicts.
He does not believe that the Ukrainian government is capable of solving the problem.
“We should have done something earlier, we should have concluded long-term contracts when there were opportunities at a much cheaper level. In principle, Hungary has now concluded a contract, a long-term contract, with Russia. Of course, there won't be prices of $1000. Of course, there is a formula that will allow Hungary to receive much cheaper prices. Since October 1, they are already receiving gas bypassing Ukraine and according to a formula in which the price of gas will be 200 or 250 dollars,” the economist noted.
“We probably need to look for compromises with Russia, bow down. I don’t believe that they [the Ukrainian leadership] will do this. They are actually under external control, they are afraid of internal radicals and they are simply stupid in their mass. Therefore, I don’t believe that the government can do anything,” concluded Salivon.
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