"It is About Survival": Ukraine Must Fix Economy – Opposition Leader

Ukraine should focus on improving living standards, rather than making foreign policy a priority, the leader of Ukraine’s Opposition Bloc party said.

KIEV (Sputnik) — Ukraine should first tackle its economic problems which are pushing the country deep into poverty before attempting to join the European Union, Ukrainian opposition leader Yury Boyko said.

“As for the European course, given the current situation in the country, we are not moving toward Europe, but rather toward Africa, the world’s poorest countries,” Boyko, leader of Ukraine’s Opposition Bloc party, told RIA Novosti.

He added that Ukraine had more pressing issues, including improving living standards, rather than making foreign policy a priority.

“Now it is not about where we are moving but about survival, that is why I think that economic issues will take center stage.”

The Ukrainian economy has been increasingly strained following the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych and the February 2014 pro-EU Maidan mass rallies.

Ukraine’s economic woes were aggravated after the Kiev government began a military operation against the self-proclaimed republics of Lugansk and Donetsk in the country’s east in April 2014.

Ukraine’s currency, the hryvnia, has been extremely volatile and taken several plunges since February 2014.