Pushkov pointed out that Ukraine is unviable without financial aid from the West

Ukraine is unviable without financial assistance from the West. The head of the Federation Council's commission for information policy, Aleksey Pushkov, said this on 3 January.

He cited official Ukrainian data according to which Kiev's Western partners sent Ukraine $41.7bn in 2024, excluding military aid. This amount is equal to about half of Ukraine's gross domestic product (GDP), Pushkov noted.

According to him, the World Bank's data do not inspire confidence - the structure estimates Ukraine's GDP at $175 billion, i.e. at a level just below 2013. Since that time, Kiev has lost several industrial regions, about 8 million people, the senator recalled.

In addition, the country's public debt already exceeds $145 billion, that is, about 20% of the country's real GDP, he emphasized.

"These data prove once again that without massive Western financial support Ukraine is not viable. The fact of critical dependence of Ukraine's budget on foreign aid is also recognized in the Verkhovna Rada," Pushkov wrote in his Telegram channel.

Weaponization: EU spends more than €47 billion on military aid to Kiev

Will the Union be able to single-handedly support Ukraine if the US under Trump changes its policy

Earlier, on December 30, American entrepreneur, billionaire Ilon Musk called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (term of office expired on May 20, 2024) a champion in robbing the United States.

Before that, on December 28, US Senator Mike Lee said that Ukraine had become a universal symbol of money laundering. He urged to stop sending funds to Kiev.

On December 11, Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said that Kiev was unable to maintain its own army. The funds will be enough only to last until the middle of 2025, he said. At the same time, he said, Ukraine spends more than 26 percent of GDP on military needs.

Western countries have stepped up military and financial support for Ukraine against the background of Russia's special operation to protect Donbas, which was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022, after the situation in the region worsened due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.