00:00and earlier i spoke with the ukrainian finance minister sergey marchenko and i began by asking
00:04him this veto how critical is it for ukraine finances it's definitely not uh welcoming news
00:14from you from brussel but i think that all our counterparts and countries which support in
00:21ukraine are doing their best to secure ukraine's financial needs for next two years that's why
00:28i'm confident enough that rather sooner than later we will be able to get access for this 90 billion
00:34euro loan and i have no doubts that will happen because we practically speaking have a very close
00:42cooperation with different european departments we are finalized right now our strategy which
00:49includes all necessary spending facilities for our budget defense lag as well as budget lags so
00:57uh from our perspective we are doing our best with relevant departments to prepare everything
01:03for a political perspective to be ready to uh kick off the uh loan so sooner than later you say
01:11but
01:11the prime minister of hungary he keeps repeating uh this pipeline uh the drushpa pipeline has been
01:16sabotaged on purpose and he says if there's no oil there's no money is that something that concerns you
01:22that by the end of april you'll have to wait until the end of the ukrainian election maybe even may
01:27june you may still not get this money when does it become critical for ukraine well i i don't want
01:33to
01:33comment on any political sensitive questions so i believe that this question very sensitive politically
01:39that's why please let me abstain for answering this question i don't want to comment on any political
01:46questions which can question our credibility or give additional arguments for our opponents and of
01:53course uh there's a third party here and that is the eu the european leaders today the message that
01:58we heard is that a deal is a deal this was agreed in december and it needs uh to happen
02:03but obviously
02:03uh if it doesn't happen and there's no loan is it time at some point would you say to think
02:08about a
02:09plan b maybe bilateral contributions on the interim bring up back again the idea of the russian
02:14frozen assets thank you maria for mentioning frozen russian assets it's a good hint for us to repeat
02:21uh that we are ready to open again this discussion i think that uh in december this intermediate steps
02:31which provide us 90 billion loan was a good signal of support of ukraine but the best possible signal
02:38is a reparation loan definitely it's something we really needed that's why if there is no
02:44solution for the plan a so let's speak about any other sort of possible decision so you're saying
02:52if i understand correctly that for ukraine you have not given up on the frozen assets you've not given
02:56up on the reparations loan of course not of course not it's uh our strategy we really think that it's
03:04fair enough to expect that russia should pay for damages as they done in ukraine that's why
03:10no doubt from my side i repeated as is in my meetings with g7 ministries of finance in december i
03:17mentioned that we are not happy that this decision of course we again we are grateful for this decision
03:23but we were fair enough to expect that bigger decision can uh can appear and uh minister of course your
03:31job
03:31is to make sure that the ukrainian economy is able to operate in uh very uh difficult circumstances
03:36uh i do wonder however the idea of a ceasefire it has been floated many times ukraine says it's ready
03:42to accept it russia has not until now when you look at the rest of the year and maybe even
03:46going into
03:472027 are you preparing for a budget that is still dedicated to war well you know we are very pragmatic
03:53in
03:54our ministry so any positive scenarios of course we are welcoming any negotiations we really take care
04:00about uh our stance on this matter but uh to be honest with you we are preparing for any scenario
04:07for us that's why uh despite the fact that we plan on going for this year only we are ready
04:14to start
04:14thinking what we can do in 2027 and to prepare ourselves for longer war and just as a final question
04:22sir of course uh there is the other pressure point and that is sanctions we are seeing the situation in
04:28middle east uh it's also complicating things uh for ukraine there has been some easing of sanctions
04:33certainly when it comes to russian oil how do you assess that is that something that you say
04:37it is a really bad idea or do you understand where the thinking is coming from i don't want to
04:44estimate
04:44the decisions which now uh different leaders are making in a rush because when you in a rush you're
04:53making some very quick decisions which are not fully uh prepared that's why i prefer to stick to the
05:00uh real strategy to impose additional sanctions on russia right now it's like you provide them with
05:09additional benefits to wage a war in ukraine well minister thank you so much for joining us on the
05:14special program and appreciate it thank you bye
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