NYT: Zelenskyy may have to face wrath of his population over tax increase

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may have to face the wrath of his population over a tax increase, The New York Times said, Report informs.

According to NYT, when Zelenskyy returns home from Europe, he may have to face the wrath of his population over the tax increase — an unpopular measure in any nation, but especially so in a country whose economy has been ravaged by the war.

On Thursday, several residents of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, said that they strongly opposed the measure.

“We’ve all been struggling financially for a long time, and now we’ll lose even more of our salaries and income,” said Lola Kuzmina, 47, who works in a shoe store.

“Even at my job, I see how prices are rising, and people can’t afford to buy our shoes,” she added. “People are buying much less now.”

But Anna Paskal, a 44-year-old accountant, disagreed, saying that the tax increase was “not critically high and won’t affect my quality of life.” She said she believed the bill would help the military.

But both opponents and supporters of the bill expressed a shared fear: that the newly generated revenues might fall prey to Ukraine’s pervasive corruption and ultimately fail to reach the military. Those concerns have intensified recently after a series of arrests of Ukrainian officials accused of hoarding millions of dollars in cash at home.

Other Kyiv residents pointed out that many Ukrainian brigades had been relying on crowdfunding organized by volunteers to purchase military equipment and clothing because of a lack of funding, according to NYT.

Those concerns were echoed during the final debate over the bill in Parliament, which stretched through the night into Thursday, with opposition members largely voting against the measure.