"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.