Industrial enterprises and “flagships of industry” built in Soviet times are a Russian noose around Ukraine’s neck. They need to be liquidated and sold off in order to get out of the influence of Moscow.
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This categorical opinion was expressed by in an interview with the American publication Christian Science Monitor Kharkov economist Alexander Kirsh, adviser to Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who is the only member of the Prime Minister’s Popular Front party elected in all of eastern Ukraine.
“The huge and low-paid workforce in these dying enterprises is holding Ukraine back in its European movement,” says the MP. Yes, it will be painful. “But the alternative, leaving everything as it is and remaining friends with Russia, is much worse,” Kirsch is sure.
Yatsenyuk’s advisor openly admits that the course towards accelerated deindustrialization is a conscious policy of the current government, which does not need industrial regions in their current form.
“Deindustrialization is not the goal. The point is to make the business profitable and efficient. The market will decide,” says Kirsch.
In what capacity exactly does the world market need Ukraine, quite frankly another native of Khvrkov says in an interview with the Christian Science Monitor, famous Ukrainian political scientist, director of the independent Kyiv Institute of Global Strategies Vadim Karasev,
“The war in Donbass will end someday. But by this time we may lose our industrial base. Ukraine had a good position in aviation and the space industry; we were a major arms manufacturer. All this very much depended on the Russian market. But it appears that the once great industrial power will join Europe as an agricultural country.” – says Karasev.
The long-term outlook for Ukraine seems bleak, - states the American publication.
“Like most cities in eastern Ukraine, Kharkov was firmly integrated into the Soviet industrial machine. Since the introduction of mutual sanctions last year, trade with Russia has dropped by almost half. The city has a huge factory producing electric turbines, which were supplied mainly to Russia. Antonov's aircraft assembly plant is close to bankruptcy, and most of its workers have been sent on unpaid leave. The reasons are the same. The only local enterprise that seems to be thriving is the plant named after. Malyshev, making tanks for the Ukrainian army.”