Ukraine Must Embrace “No” To Some Funding. Critical Problem Is Not When It Receives Military Equipment Courtesy Of US Taxpayer Borrowing. Critical Problem Is How To Obtain Results Quickly
When President Zelensky Wants Something, He And His Messaging Teams Are All Over Everywhere- Cajoling, Persuading, Arm Twisting, Criticizing, And Insulting (A Tried And True Fallback).
When President Zelensky Knowns He Should Be Saying “No” To Getting Something His Lips Are Sealed With Gorilla Glue.
While There Is Debate About The Existence Of Ukraine Fatigue, There Is An Increasing Plurality About Zelensky Fatigue, Including Within Ukraine.
The Government Of Ukraine’s Critical Problem Is Not When It Receives Military Equipment Courtesy Of United States Taxpayer Borrowing. The Critical Problem Is How To Obtain Results From It- Quickly.
Biden-Harris Administration’s Problem Is Every New Drawdown For Ukraine Will Be Examined By 535 Political Proctologists Who Will Link Progress On The Battlefield With United States Taxpayer Borrowing For Ukraine.
And Those Doctors Of Political Proctology Are Not Looking For Unique Battlefield Victories, Think Battle Of The Bulge, Battle Of Volgograd. They Will Require Substantial And Permanent Territorial Gains, Changes In Real Estate Control. Five Or Ten Kilometers Will Not Satisfy; Village Here And Town There.
With The Judgement Of Joseph Biden, 46th President Of The United States, Relating To His Failure To Meaningfully Influence During Five Months The Government Of The State Of Israel And Its Prosecution Of The War In Gaza, Along With The Messy And Deadly Process Of Withdrawing From Afghanistan, Those Who Oppose Decisions Of The Biden-Harris Administration Will Be Actively Identifying Perceived Lapses Of Judgement Relating To Use Of United States Taxpayer Borrowed Funds In Ukraine.
To date, The United States Agency For International Development (USAID) Has Provided Far Too Many Examples Of Allocation Of Funds Which Are Unnecessary.
Why Doesn’t President Zelensky Inform The United States Congress That Ukraine Does Not Need Hundreds Of Millions- And Potentially Billions Of United States Taxpayer Borrowed Funds For Spending In Ukraine That Is Not Essential. When, Most Significantly, The Funding Is The Responsibility Of Taxpayers In The Twenty-Seven Country Member European Union (EU)?
Why Hasn’t President Zelensky Delivered A Video Address Wherein He Lists Those Biden-Harris Administration Funding Requests For Ukraine Which Are NOT Essential. For Example, Would Not US$455 Million In Non-Military USAID Marketing Projects Be Better Used For Ammunition?
That President Zelensky And The Government Of Ukraine Have Never Said “No Thank You” To United States Taxpayer Borrowing Is A Fundamental Problem And Projects An Inherent Greed, Feeling Of Entitlement.
As Smart At Messaging As Is President Zelensky And The Government Of Ukraine, They Both Demonstrate A Courage Of Ignorance.
The Government Of The United States Is Expected To Deliver Further Funding To Ukraine, But With Each Day In 2024 Nearer To The 5 November 2024 Election Day, President Biden Will Be Forced To Measure Funding Disbursements With Successes By The Armed Forces Of Ukraine. Opponents In The United States Congress And The Presumptive Presidential Nominee Of The Republican Party, Donald Trump (45th President Of The United States), Will Make Every Dispersed U.S. Dollar A Political Issue.
Unless Ukraine Makes Progress Prior To, During, And In Advance Of Each Drawdown, Those Opposing Support Will Say President Biden Is Again Wasting Taxpayer Money. Supporters Of Ukraine, And Officials Within The Zelensky Administration Should Not Be Delusional And Believe The “Wasting Issue” Will Not Resonate With Voters And With Members Of The United States Congress.
Mr. Trump Will Craft A Message Which Underscores How President Zelensky Has Duped President Biden. Mr. Trump Will Offer That President Trump Has Been Played By President Zelensky Whose Sole Purpose Is To Maintain An “Endless War” With The Government Of The Russian Federation While Demanding United States Taxpayers Pay For It.
What President Zelensky Does Not Want Is A Quid Pro Quo Linking Visual Successes On The Battlefield With Each Round Of Ammunition, Each Tank, And Each Patriot Missile Battery Delivered To Ukraine.
The United States Government Fiscal Year Ends On 30 September 2024. While The Ukraine-Related Funding Proposed By The Biden-Harris Administration Is For Fiscal Year 2023, Fiscal Year 2024, And Beyond. President Biden Is Seeking Funds For Which He May Not Be In Office To Disburse.
Are These United States Taxpayer Borrowed Projects In Ukraine Appropriate? Either Now Or Ever? Are They As Urgent As Ammunition? Should They Be The Responsibility Of The EU- To Which Ukraine Wants Membership And The EU Wants Ukraine As A Member?
Ukraine Business News: “With assistance from USAID, Ukraine launched a platform to help startups find investors. Ukraine launched the Fundraising Lab - the Unicorn Nest initiative with the support and funding of USAID. "Within the program, we will select 10 Ukrainian startups and help them to attract investments," said investor Denys Dovgopolyy. According to him, Ukrainian startups with great product cannot attract investment due to a lack of experience and a limited overview of investment funds. Therefore, a team of entrepreneurs and investors decided to provide services to Ukrainian startups that already have a product in the market with monthly revenues between $20,000–$50,000 per month and help match them with investment funds that are already familiar with the company’s industry or product. "We do not work with angel investors because, as a European company, we cannot use our algorithms when working with data on individuals, but we collect and analyze a large amount of data on funds and their deals," Dovgopolyy said. “However, we can find up to 200 target funds for such a startup and organize effective and high-quality communication with them," the investor said.”
Ukraine Business News: “UZ could not attract EU funds to construct a Eurotrack route to Lviv; negotiations with the US are ongoing. Ukraine has failed to attract funds under the EU Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) program for the construction of the Mostysk - Sknyliv railway section from the state border with Poland to Lviv said the chairman of the board of Ukrainian Railways (UZ), Yevhen Lyashchenko. Currently, USAID is studying the possibility of financing 50% of the project’s cost. At the same time, the Minister of Infrastructure, Oleksandr Kubrakov, recently announced that the construction of the Mostysk - Sknyliv railway section, with the support of European partners, will begin in 2024. Construction of narrow Eurogauge (1435 mm) railways in this direction was planned to start in 2020. In 2020, the government also included this project in its list of priority investment projects through 2023. The project’s cost is estimated at $20.8M. UZ planned to complete the track’s construction by the end of 2023.”
Ukraine Business News: “The US will help Ukraine modernize business support and attract private investment. "Now we strive for the fastest possible recovery of the economy, which is impossible without the involvement of private investment. And for this, we need to expand, insuring investors against military risks. We propose to involve the DFC or other financial organizations in this," said Economy Minister Yuliya Svyridenko, noting that USAID will assist. The agency will also discuss the strategy for developing small and medium enterprises until 2027. "This year, we want to modernize business support programs to increase efficiency. We must focus on creating new jobs and increasing the contribution of new enterprises to the creation of additional GDP. Therefore, we will focus more on developing small and medium-sized businesses, especially processing enterprises. We invite our American colleagues not only to expand the financial support of relevant programs but also to share in our experience of increasing the effectiveness of such support," added Svyridenko.”
Ukraine Business News: “Ukraine's largest grain market operator is asking USAID to expand its railroad fleet. The Nibulon company wants to expand its railcar fleet by 250 units and has asked USAID to finance this initiative. Mykhailo Rizak, the grain trader’s top manager, recalled that in 2023, USAID helped Nibulon purchase 50 hopper cars. This allowed the agricultural holding to significantly improve its transportation economy during July-December due to an increase in the share of wagons used, from 10% to 23%. The economic impact that was redistributed to the purchase price paid to farmers amounted to $1.7M. To scale the impact on the entire elevator network of Nibulon complexes, 250 additional cars are needed. It is noted that the increase in the supply of wagons from Ukrainian Railways and their provision from donors will make it possible to reduce logistics costs on the Danube, delivering a positive economic component for all agricultural exporters.”
Ukraine Business News: “AGRO pledges up to ₴270M in co-financing to elevator owners. 30 Ukrainian companies will receive grants of up to €25,000 to develop their business. These businesses work on innovative products and services or are actively expanding into exports. The winning companies are located in 12 regions of Ukraine. The grant wave took place within the framework of the EU4Business program, which the EU and the German Government co-financed. Also, due to the complicated export procedures for micro, small, and medium-sized agricultural producers in Ukraine, they need additional elevator capacities. Therefore, the USAID AGRO program will provide up to ₴270M ($7M) in co-financing to Ukrainian enterprises that provide services for drying, storage, and processing of grain and technical crops. The program envisages 10-15 co-financing projects, with a budget from ₴18 to ₴36M each. The projects will increase the volume and length of grain and industrial crop storage, contributing to business sustainability and improving food security in Ukraine.”
Ukraine Business News: “USAID Program “Competitive Economy Of Ukraine” Three-Creased Grant Support For Ukrainian Manufacturing Enterprises - Up To $11 Million. The USAID program "Competitive Economy of Ukraine" tripled the grant support for Ukrainian processing enterprises - up to $11 million Funding will be provided within the framework of a grant to support processing enterprises implemented by the USAID Program "Competitive Economy of Ukraine" in partnership with the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine. In view of the large number of applications and significant interest from enterprises of the processing industry, it was decided to increase the amount of grant funding. The total amount of financing of the grant program to support the innovative transformation and development of Ukrainian enterprises will amount to $11 million, and about 75 grants will be provided within the program (previously, about 25 grants were planned). "Development of Ukrainian producers and attraction of investments in the real sector is a priority of the Ministry of Economy. Our strategy is processing and development of high-tech industries. We must increase the share of processing in the structure of GDP from the current 10% to at least 20%, because there are no examples of successful raw material countries. Rawness is often the opposite of poverty," says First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine - Minister of Economy Yulia Svyridenko. In particular, the grants will support businesses in activities that contribute to the production of innovative products, modernization of production, reduction of manual human labor in combination with the creation of more highly qualified jobs, increasing the efficiency of the use of other resources, import substitution on the Ukrainian market and/or export of Ukrainian products to fill niches, previously occupied by Russian and Belarusian products, localization of production of goods needed for reconstruction. Details can be found at https://chemonics.submittable.com/submit. The USAID program "Competitive Economy of Ukraine" supports Ukrainian business with the aim of increasing competitiveness in the domestic market of Ukraine and in international markets, helps in building a simplified and transparent business climate, and also provides Ukrainian companies with opportunities to take advantage of the advantages of international trade.”
Ukraine Business News: “US Senators have proposed a $1.8B bill to restore the energy sector of Ukraine. Two American senators introduced a bill for consideration by the upper house of Congress, allocating more than $1.8B to restore Ukraine's energy sector. In a statement from the House Committee on Foreign Affairs chairman, Robert Menendez, it notes that the bill aims to "attract American investments into the Ukrainian energy infrastructure and strengthen the energy security of Eastern Europe. It assumes assistance in the restoration and modernization of the energy infrastructure of Ukraine, as well as the provision of investments and technical assistance in Europe and South-Eastern Europe to reduce the region's dependence on Russian energy resources." The two US senators proposed to allocate a total of $1.88B for these specified purposes through the State Department and USAID.”
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