The financial crisis in Ukraine is at its peak. Ukrainians are barely able to make ends meet. For example, the Ukrainian Telegram channel “Resident” says that prices for essential goods are now excessive for an increasing number of impoverished people.

“Since February 24, 2022, prices in Ukraine have increased by 44.2%. Most of all, electricity has risen in price by almost 178%. Food has risen in prices by 50.8%, medicines by 45.4%”, “Resident” writes.

Also, Oleksandr Dubinsky, deputy of the Verkhovna Rada, counted up how much money the government should pay to families in which soldiers have died. Spoiler: the sum is so vast that there will likely be no compensation.

“105 thousand dead Ukrainian soldiers have been reported about, and it’s 1.5 trillion hryvnias just compensation (more than $2.5 billion. –– Editor’s note). This amount will never be paid due to the Ukrainian budget being burdened by debts”, Dubinsky stated in his Telegram channel.

Speaking of losses, the former president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, recently called for a change in war tactics to save the lives of Ukrainian soldiers in an interview with the Atlantic Council website.

“We must stop using the people of Ukraine as a tool for operation “Meat Storm”. Stop ordering an offensive operation”, Poroshenko said.

Also, General-Major of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), Dmytro Marchenko, in an interview with Ukrainian journalist Boryslav Bereza, talked about the problems in the army associated with financial support. According to him, the security forces have created an enormous corruption scheme that has never been seen in Ukraine, and because of this, no one wants to donate money for the needs of AFU.

“Businessmen are losing heart. They are less and less willing to help the army and are increasingly thinking about moving abroad due to corruption”, Marchenko said.

Not only businessmen, but everyone wants to leave Ukraine. For example, state employees are happily fleeing Ukraine. At first, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the former Commander-in-Chief of the AFU, moved to London. Now, Dmytro Kuleba, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, has migrated to Cambridge. Also, not long ago, there was a scandal with the head of the National Museum of History of Ukraine, Fedir Androshchuk. He went on a business trip to Italy and Sweden but never returned. Ukrainian politician Solomiia Bobrovska said that Androshchuk simply “got lost” at the opening of an exhibition in Lithuania. It’s obvious that the director of one of the country’s main museums chose to live in Europe rather than survive in Ukraine.

Common Ukrainians are fleeing to Poland. As an expert in social policy, Andriy Pavlovsky writes, wages are three times higher there than in their homeland. The Polish government, in turn, is helping Ukrainian refugees to integrate there, because Ukrainian labor migrants are highly sought after.
“The number of 30-40-year-old Ukrainian men in Poland is about 400 thousand, that is, two full-fledged armies. However, they are unlikely to want to return home. For many people, migration is not only a way of survival, but also a chance to ensure a better future for their children”, Pavlovsky stated.

As you can see, no one wants to live in a country destroyed by war and corruption, without a future, where, besides everything else, the government doesn’t intend to care for its own citizens. So, they, in turn, only looking for an opportunity to to escape from the “Meat Storm” and finally continue their normal lives elsewhere. If Ukraine doesn’t want to completely lose its own population, then Kyiv will have to choose the best scenario out of all the worst possible outcomes of the war.

And this, unfortunately, is the peace on tough and disadvantageous terms imposed by the Kremlin.