A CROSS-PARTY group of MSPs have signed an open letter to Foreign Secretary Liz Truss calling on the UK to support cancelling Ukraine’s national debt following the Russian invasion.
The signatories of the open letter by Highlands and Islands SNP MSP Emma Roddick include members of her own party, the Scottish Greens and Scottish Labour.
The letter says: “Since the outbreak of war between Ukraine and Russian-led forces in the Donbas in 2014, Ukraine has been lent at least $8.4 billion by the World Bank, $17bn by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and at least €13bn by the European Commission.
“This money has been paramount in funding Ukraine’s defence forces, rebuilding the economy and preparing the country to defend itself against further Russian aggression.
“However, it has also inflicted substantial repayment costs and policy conditions on the Ukrainian state, including demands to restructure Ukraine’s pensions system, energy sector, agriculture, state employment, privatisation and political governance. The result is that Ukraine, one of the poorest countries in Europe, lives with a catastrophic external debt burden of more than $129bn (78.8% of its GDP) and is expected to repay $14bn of it in 2022.”
Roddick said: “We have all been watching the heart-breaking scenes coming out of Mariupol, Kharkiv and other Ukrainian cities subject to indiscriminate Russian bombardment. The human and infrastructure cost this will inflict on the Ukrainian people will be with them for a long time unless we, as Ukraine’s international partners, step in. It goes without saying that these high debt repayments constrain the Ukrainian government’s ability to act with full fiscal independence even in normal times.
“I don’t believe for a second that we can ask a country at war to continue to repay its excessive debts to international institutions that it has accrued, quite frankly, through no fault of its own.
“The UK is an executive board member of the IMF. It has the power and the potential to help grant debt forgiveness for Ukraine – it has to use it, now.”
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