OREANDA-NEWS. The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky stated that the country should stop asking for help from international partners, including the European Union (EU). According to the national leader, Ukraine needs to implement projects with other states on equal terms.

“Our goal is to get out of such an unpleasant paradigm, the paradigm of the supplicant of aid, and begin to implement large investment projects at one level with our international partners,” Zelensky said at an investment forum in the city of Mariupol.

The head of state noted that total EU support for Ukraine has already reached 15 billion euros. According to him, there are a lot of projects in the country that may interest foreign investors. “I am sure that Ukraine can be an attractive country for investment,” Zelensky said.

Earlier, Dmytro Kuleba, the Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, said that Kiev expects to receive a second tranche of macro-financial assistance from Europe by the end of 2019. Oksana Markarova, the Minister of Finance, said that Kiev has fulfilled 11 of 12 conditions which are necessary to receive the second tranche of macro-financial assistance from the EU, and the country has a chance to get money before the end of 2019.

In June 2018, the European Council approved the fourth macro-financial assistance program for Ukraine in the amount of 1 billion euros. In December 2018, the European Commission provided Ukraine with the first tranche of macro-financial assistance in the amount of 500 million euros in the form of a loan at an interest rate of 1.25 % per annum with repayment in April 2033.