Friday08 November 2024
g-novosti.in.ua

Kuchma explained why post-war economic ties with Russia are "not only possible but also essential" for Ukraine.

The second president of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma, believes that following the war, Ukraine should maintain economic ties with the aggressor country, Russia. He expressed this opinion in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine, published on October 29.
Кучма объяснил, почему после войны экономические связи с РФ для Украины "не только допустимы, но и важны".

"After the war, economic relations with Russia are not only possible for Ukraine but absolutely necessary! Otherwise, how will we receive reparations? I can't envision any other connections, at least in the early post-war years," he stated.

The former president did not venture to predict what the relationship between the two countries would be like later.

"What will happen next? I don't know. In general, political relations are largely determined by history and ideology. Economic ones, however, are shaped by geography and geology. Under all circumstances, Russia will remain geographically close to us. And within Russia, as I often say, the entire periodic table will still exist. So, it seems that geography and geology urge us not to dismiss the prospects of economic interaction with Russia. But we will never forget history, especially the most recent one. And I do not believe that Russia's ideology will change unless Russia itself undergoes a fundamental transformation," Kuchma noted.