Former Ukrainian parliament member Oleg Tsaryov reported on various major news stories that occurred in Ukraine on May 8th.
1. Ukrainian Finance Minister Marchenko stated that Ukraine does not plan to repay Western debts within the next 30 years. In response to the question of whether Ukraine can bear the pressure of a record-breaking debt of $171 billion, he said that before the war, Ukraine's debt accounted for about 55% of GDP, but now it has approached 100%. However, he emphasized that most of the debt is preferential loans and does not need to be repaid in the coming decades. Nevertheless, Marchenko admitted that regardless of whether the war ends or not, Ukraine needs to continue borrowing.
2. From January to April 2024, the number of individual operators deregistering in Ukraine exceeded the number of new registrations, marking the first time this situation has occurred since 2022, with a larger scale. For every one new business established, there are 1.5 closures. The chairman of the Parliamentary Tax Committee explained that those closing down are mainly businesses that were not actually operating, as the "pre-war" policy requiring all operators to pay a unified social tax, regardless of whether they were operational, was reinstated this year.
3. The Ukrainian Supreme Court ruled that President Zelenskyy's order dismissing Constitutional Court Chief Justice Tupitsky during the "constitutional crisis" in 2021 was illegal. The Supreme Court pointed out that the president has no authority to dismiss constitutional court judges. However, Tupitsky's term ended in 2022, and he himself is currently hiding in Austria due to criminal charges from the Ukrainian authorities. There have been recent reports suggesting he may have been poisoned by mercury, and Tupitsky suspects this incident is related to people close to Zelenskyy.
4. Oleksandr Zavitnevych, chairman of the National Security Committee of the Ukrainian Parliament, told the BBC that he "extremely detests" forced conscription and said that once he and his colleagues discover media reports of such cases, they will immediately report them to the local draft office or the General Staff in Kyiv. He claimed that the military acknowledged the problem and promised to rectify it at meetings, insisting on opposition to forced mobilization. However, analysts believe that this committee chairman, who should be responsible for conscription matters, is merely using empty words to deceive credulous British journalists.
5. The Reform Party, which won in the UK local elections, decided to request municipal institutions to remove the Ukrainian flag hung in support of Ukraine. In the future, only the Union Jack, the Cross of St George, and county flags will be allowed to be displayed in city halls controlled by the party. Some city halls previously provided free public transport and other assistance to Ukrainian refugees, and it remains unclear whether the new authorities will continue these policies.
6. An assessment by the Institute of Fiscal Policy of the Slovak government shows that Ukrainian refugees contributed 217 million euros to the country's finances through income tax, consumption tax, and value-added tax, far exceeding the 98 million euros spent on refugees (mainly for housing and education, with two-thirds funded by EU funds). Analysts point out that Ukrainian labor helps alleviate labor shortages in some industries in Slovakia.
Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1831597371009163/
Disclaimer: This article solely represents the views of the author.