Poroshenko calls on West to kill Russian economy: it's time to win this war

“The winning formula for Ukraine is simple: Supplies of weapons, economic sanctions against Russia, helping to strengthen Ukraine's resilience, the de-Putinization of Russia, and the accession of Ukraine to the European Union and NATO,” Poroshenko writes in his opinion piece.

He emphasizes that money fuels Russia's deadly military machine, which continues to kill Ukrainians.

“To bring this machine to a stop it will take more than military action. There must be powerful financial punches – indeed an economic crisis – and even social upheaval,” the fifth president of Ukraine notes. 

“The new restrictions on Russian oil and oil products, imposed in December and February respectively, took off so successfully that they have invoked images first used to describe the Soviet Union: the rusty "gas station of Europe" and "Upper Volta with missiles."

“Contrary to the prophecies of Russian propaganda, Europe has not frozen this winter. Gas prices have fallen. The selling price of Russian oil is gradually getting closer to its production price. With the collapse of oil and gas revenues, the Russian Federation's budget deficit soared to $25 billion in January. This kind of tailspin has not happened since 1998, a symbolic year of economic disaster for Russia,” Petro Poroshenko says. 

In particular, he calls for an end to the transportation of Russian oil by shadow fleet tankers and for a restriction on liquefied natural gas supplies from Russia. 

“The Suez Canal must be closed to Russian cargo. Doing so would add three to four weeks for a tanker to get from Russia's western ports to India and China, huge consumers of Putin's oil and coal. The longer these routes are, the more transportation costs, the greater Russia's losses, the fewer Ukrainians will die,” Petro Poroshenko emphasizes. 

According to him, it is also necessary to close the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline: 

“I am convinced that Ukraine is ready to accept losses to its revenues from Druzhba, and even from the gas transportation system. What might cost Kyiv $1 billion will cost Moscow $16 billion: 10 billion for gas and 6 billion for crude oil.”

If all of these proposals are implemented in the next EU sanctions packages, the liquid part of Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves will be completely exhausted by the end of the third quarter of 2023. This will kill Russian imports, which means it will kill the economy. Inflation and a sharp drop in living standards will hit the social basis of Putin's power, Petro Poroshenko explains. 

“The world will definitely be a better place without Putin… 

Deprive Putin of money, help us with weapons, add on sanctions from hell, de-Putinize Russia, and welcome Ukraine to the EU and NATO. Only all the components of our winning formula together would guarantee permanent security for the European continent and the whole world.

The time has come to win this war,” Petro Poroshenko summarizes.