Letters to the editor: Our readers on war, anti-migration protests, and investments in Ukraine

This week's letters come from readers writing about Ukraine — a Romanian journalist reporting from Kyiv on the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment, an American veteran on American support, and an investor questioning whether some foreign "investment" is being mistaken for genuine economic recovery.

Got an opinion on anything you've read in the Kyiv Independent? Send it to letters@kyivindependent.com — your letter may appear in our Letters section.

Eric Schmidt's Ukraine deal is a rounding error, not a recovery plan

Thomas J Gallagher, United States

Eric and Wendy Schmidt's "investment" in existing Ukrainian commercial real estate is not as significant as it has been portrayed.

Mr Schmidt's wealth is approximately one-tenth of the combined public and private wealth in Ukraine. As a proportion of his $60 billion fortune, this deal is comparable to someone worth $3 million buying a single $5,000 SUV in Poland, painting it, and shipping it to the front, while bringing no tourniquets, no Mavic-3s, just one beater Kia Sportage from a millionaire.

By my estimation, thousands of his fellow Americans have donated far more of their wealth proportionally.

More troubling, however, is what this coverage reveals about priorities. The last thing news outlets should be championing is real estate investment.

Ukraine's banks are glorified card payment providers — they make virtually no loans to the private sector, instead collecting 15% interest from depositors to buy government debt at 20% or more. There are no functioning domestic equity capital markets.

A Ukrainian with savings buys another property for cash, because there is nowhere else to put it productively. What Ukraine needs is not inflated land prices in Kyiv and Lviv — already overvalued on any income-stream analysis — but productive capital. Until that changes, neither Ukrainian businesses nor investors should expect their fortunes to improve.

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Anti-immigrant banners near Maidan betray the spirit of Ukraine's foreign supporters

Alex Craiu, Romania

"Get out of Ukraine, ugly migrant" and "Ukraine is for Ukrainians" were the banners held by a handful of protesters that caught my eye as I was driving past Maidan Nezalezhnosti in May. The deeply entrenched Ukrainian pop-culture reference "Геть з України, москаль некрасівий!" was adapted to send a hostile message not to the occupiers, but to those who, like Ukrainians all over the world, fled their own country for a better life elsewhere.

The far-right nationalists are hurting Ukraine from within, far beyond what the fake propaganda can achieve.

I was the first Romanian journalist to move to Ukraine during the war to report full-time from there. I took on this task during a difficult time when Ukrainian history is being rewritten. I never considered myself an immigrant to Ukraine — it was long after I started living here that I realized I had actually moved. After the war is over, I will collect every single thing I collected since moving here in 2023, and I will return to my homeland, the way many Ukrainians will happily return to theirs.

Even though I did not feel targeted by the hatred in the anti-immigrant messages, I could not help but feel saddened by the fact that the protesters were only a few hundred meters away from the flags of other countries commemorating the losses of the foreign volunteers who came to fight in Ukraine.

It seems like a good time to remember that the biggest community of foreigners acting against Ukraine right now is Russian. Any hostile messages to other communities who came here to seek work — thus helping Ukraine's economy — are irrelevant, dangerous, and destructive distractions from the real issues. And it is deeply hurting Ukraine's image.

U.S. veteran urges continued support for Ukraine

Charles Wagner, United States

I am an American, 78 years old, a military veteran, and a farm boy turned into a corporate executive. I am a Republican, although our country's leadership calls me a Rino. Yet I believe that that's okay; rhinos have tough skin.

I am embarrassed by the U.S. reaction to the Russian attack and invasion of Ukraine. Neither the Democratic nor the Republican parties have done enough, and the U.S. and Ukraine are both democracies that the world needs to survive.

Yet Russian President Vladimir Putin's threats seem to carry the day even when Ukraine has shown how weak he is. Only Putin himself wants this war. I truly believe that if the rest of the democratic world had supported Ukraine at the war's onset, the war would have ended in 2023.

Putin would have been shown up as the meaningless person he is. Unfortunately, I also believe that no matter what Putin says, he will always use military force only, and he is the one who needs to end this war. The only question is how long before he leaves.

Editor's note: The letters published in this section reflect the views of their authors alone and do not purport to represent the position of the Kyiv Independent. Got an opinion on anything you've read in the Kyiv Independent? Send it to letters@kyivindependent.com — your letter may appear in our Letters section.