To those Ukrainians who have no heat in their homes or work places, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva lectured members of the Parliament, the Verkovna Rada, whose building has no heat, “you have to believe in yourself as a lion, so get up in the morning and roar.” Then everyone will feel better, RT reported her saying. MP Danill Getmantsev, the head of the parliamentary energy committee, scoffed at Georgieva’s stupid advice. He reported there is water but no heat in Parliament. “I tried roaring like a lion. It didn’t help much.”
Georgieva offered more cruel advice while speaking Jan. 19 at the Davos World Economic Forum. Subsidies for heating, gas and electricity “have to go,” she demanded, as a precondition for Ukraine receiving more IMF funds. International lenders are demanding “painful reforms” which killer Georgieva fully supports in order to encourage, in her words, “private sector dynamism.”
Former MP Igor Markov, told Russian media that IMF demands will make Ukrainian cities “unlivable,” and force people into the countryside. In its collapsing economy, now exacerbated by recent Russian missile and drone attacks on energy infrastructure, Ukraine has had to rely on subsidies for gas and electricity for years. RT recalls that last October, Bloomberg reported that the Fund was pressuring Kiev to also devalue its currency, the hryvnia, as a condition for securing new loans. To date, the IMF has disbursed $10 billion out of a $15.5 billion package which ends in 2027. In November of last year, a new agreement was reached for an additional $8.1 billion
In an interview with The Times of London published Jan. 20, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko warned of a looming humanitarian catastrophe in his city of 3 milion people reporting that 600,000 citizens have already left the capital in just this month and that 5,600 apartment buildings are without heat. Klitschko and acting President Volodymyr Zelensky are blaming each other for the crisis and Zelensky refuses to meet with the mayor, claiming that he failed to prepare for the current crisis. In the meantime, the temperature stands at minus 18C in a cold spell that hasn’t ended. Efforts have been made to provide heated tents and rail cars to provide temporary shelter; schools are closed as are hospitals although some hospital care is available during the day. Parts of Kharkiv and Odessa are also without energy.
