George Soros advocates EU financial aid and military assistance to Ukraine to restore Kievās fighting capacity without violating the Minsk peace deal, claim anti-Kiev hackers citing leaked emails between the billionaire and Ukraineās president.
The hacking group CyberBerkut claims it has penetrated Ukraineās presidential administration website and obtained correspondence between Soros and Ukraineās President Petro Poroshenko.
The hacktivists have published three files online, which include a draft of āA short and medium term comprehensive strategy for the new Ukraineā by Soros (dated March 12, 2015); an undated paper on military assistance to Kiev; and the billionaireās letter to Poroshenko and Ukraineās Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk, dated December 23, 2014.
According to the leaked documents, Soros supports Barack Obamaās stance on Ukraine, but believes that the US should do even more.
He is confident that the US should provide Ukraine with lethal military assistance, āwith same level of sophistication in defense weapons to match the level of opposing force.ā
āIn poker terms, the US will āmeet, but not raise,ā the 84-year-old businessman explained, supposedly signing one of the letters as āa self-appointed advocate of the new Ukraine.ā
The Western backers want Kiev to ārestore the fighting capacity of Ukraine without violating the Minsk agreement,ā Soros wrote.
Retired US general Wesley Clark, who commanded the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, and Polish ex-general, Waldemar Skrzypczak, will be among those advising Poroshenko on how to fulfil this task, he added.
In mid-February, after a year of fighting, Kiev and rebels from the self-proclaimed Peopleās Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk signed a peace deal calling for a ceasefire, heavy weapons withdrawal, and prisoner exchanges between the sides.
Among other things, the leaked documents claim that the Ukrainian authorities were also asked to ārestore some semblance of currency stability and functioning banking systemā and āmaintain unity among the various branches of governmentā in order to receive assistance from foreign allies.
Soros believes that itās up to the EU to support Kiev with financial aid, stressing that āEurope must reach a new framework agreement that will allow the European Commission to allocate up to $1 billion annually to Ukraine.ā
George Soros makes hush-hush trip to Kiev
As for the current state of economy, the billionaire wrote that former Chilean finance minister, Andres Velasco, after visiting Ukraine on his request, returned with āa dire view of financial situation.”
āThe new Ukraine is literally on the verge of collapseā due to the national bankās lack of hard currency reserves, Soros warned Poroshenko.
The correspondence shows that the billionaire has been in constant touch with the authorities in Kiev and consulting them.
Soros has been involved in Ukraine since 1989, when he founded the Ukrainian International Renaissance Foundation (IRF) that provided more than $100 million to Ukrainian NGOs two years before the fall of the Soviet Union.
The billionaire is connected to several non-governmental organizations in Ukraine that advocate closer ties to the EU and aided the EuroMaidan movement that toppled Viktor Yanukovichās government last February.
In March, he criticized the EU for paying too much attention to Greeceās economic problems and promised to invest $1 billion of his own money in Ukraine.
Soros is the 30th richest person in the world, according to Forbesā ranking, and had a personal fortune of $19 billion as of March 2013.
