Yesterday at the conciliation board’s meeting I, as the head of the Opposition Bloc faction, raised a question about the responsibility of those in power and president Poroshenko personally for the economic consequences from imposing the martial law.

First of all, it is necessary to find out what price Ukrainian people and the economy of Ukraine will pay for the martial law. Traditionally, the authorities did not estimate the consequences of their actions and did nothing to protect citizens from possible deepening of the economic recession and from failure to fulfil social obligations, in particular, due to the budget under-performance, possible default or devaluation of Ukrainian hryvnia.

I want to ask the president, the National Security and Defence Council and those who voted for this shameful decision in the Verkhovna Rada: did they consider the losses that would be incurred by the national budget from imposing the martial law, how much less revenue would the state receive? I have no doubt that the martial law will affect every Ukrainian family, especially the population of the regions where it was introduced.

Martial law means a possible decrease in the credit rating of Ukraine and, whatever the authorities say to us, a termination of credit financing for our country by international institutions looks possible. This will lead to breach of contracts for companies located in regions where the martial law has been imposed. As a result, it is a decrease in production output and a reduction in jobs, a shortfall in revenues for businesses and a decrease in tax revenues to the budget. All this together will continue the shrinking of the economy and will lead to even larger impoverishment of Ukrainians.

For the party and for me personally, it is obvious that they did not make any estimates, because they only thought about cancelling or postponing the presidential elections and limiting the possibilities of their competitors. I would like to note that the month of the martial law will pass quickly, and all losses and economic consequences of this senseless decision will be summed up. Similarly, an audit will be made of what the president managed or did not manage to do to strengthen the defence capacity of Ukraine during this time. During these 30 days we will be monitoring how the authorities fulfil their promises not to restrict civil rights and freedoms.