EU assistance to Donbass turned out to be window dressing: “Nobody is giving money. Nobody is restoring anything."
EU countries' programs to help Donbass have nothing to do with restoring the infrastructure destroyed during the fighting.
Political expert Vsevolod Stepanyuk stated this on air on the 112 Ukraine TV channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Earlier, during a visit to Avdiivka, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that negotiations were underway with EU countries that were ready to help the “liberated” cities of Donbass.
“In fact, this provides, as far as I know, such negotiations have already taken place; several countries, relatively speaking, of the European Union will take so-called patronage over individual cities that have already been liberated by our troops during the Anti-Terrorist Operation.” These are Avdeevka, Kramatorsk, Slavyansk, Pokrovsk, Mariupol and so on. Today such conversations are taking place. As far as I know, Avdeevka has come closer to this. These countries are ready to take part in the life and development of these cities,” said Deputy Minister for “Temporarily Occupied Territories” Yuriy Grymchak.
Political scientist Stepanyuk hastened to warn against premature optimism, because such programs are not aimed at restoring destruction.
“Programs for the development of local self-government are in no way tied to the restoration of infrastructure. Indeed, these programs exist. These are medical programs to teach local people how to manage finances, how to manage this and that. That is, this is consulting. It has nothing to do with investing in infrastructure. Nobody gives money. Nobody is restoring anything. These are different things - assistance in the development of something and the restoration of a specific pipeline, a specific power line. I mean that the president had in mind precisely this restoration of infrastructure,” the expert noted.
Stepanyuk believes that it is Ukrainians who should give advice to Europeans, and not vice versa.
“If we take middle-aged people, then it is we who can teach the Europeans something, and not they who can teach us. All these programs are aimed at keeping their consultants here,” he states.
Let us recall that PolitNavigator previously reported that back in 2017 The European Commission has decided to allocate 50 million euros in aid for territories located near the demarcation line in Donbass.
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