Ukraine Finds Westernization Comes at a Price

Elderly sisters Halyna and Svetlana Kuhar spent almost a whole day hunting for cheap potatoes and cabbage. But as evening fell, they gave up and reluctantly paid prices 70% higher than they had hoped.

“I worked my whole life and now I have to buy cheap vegetables to survive because I cannot afford meat,” said Halyna, 71, whose monthly pension comes to about $54.

A big jump in food prices has brought early disappointment to many Ukrainians who eagerly supported Western-leaning reformer Viktor Yushchenko in last year’s bitter presidential race, hoping that his victory would bring quick improvement to their lives.

In his presidential program, Yushchenko pledged to raise living standards for this nation of 48 million people by creating 5 million new jobs, increasing pensions, and paying months of overdue wages to teachers and coal miners.

His promises of a better future helped draw tens of thousands into the streets in the peaceful “Orange Revolution” to protest a fraud-plagued election that initially handed victory to the candidate of the government then in power in this former Soviet republic.

Just months into his presidency, though, higher food prices are hurting the very people who formed the core of Yushchenko’s support -- the middle class and blue-collar workers.

The price of pork has jumped nearly 40%, while chicken costs about 50% more. Potatoes and cabbage -- staples of the Ukrainian diet -- increased by 70% and 200%, respectively.

To offset the price spikes, many rural Ukrainians grow their own vegetables. But their production is largely limited to what they consume, so there is not much excess to sell and take advantage of higher prices at markets.

Urban residents, in particular, are feeling the crunch.

“Life has become more difficult,” Valentyna Fedorenko, 31, said as she pushed her baby in a pram through a marketplace in one of the capital’s most expensive neighborhoods.

Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko, trying to alleviate people’s fears, said the food price jump was “the result of [the] tumultuous election campaign” and pledged that the government would “do everything to stabilize and even to decrease prices.”

The monthly minimum wage in Ukraine is just under $50, while the minimum retiree’s pension is only a little more. The government, meanwhile, says a monthly income of $82 is needed for bare subsistence.

The government’s budget for 2005, adopted in late March, provides for a gradual increase of the minimum wage and pension to $63 a month by year’s end. The budget also envisions boosting social benefits, such as financial aid to new mothers and medical help for the poor.

Yushchenko’s government also promises to rein in inflation, although it increased the expected price rise this year to 9.8% from 8.6%.

Oleksandr Baranovskiy, an analyst at Kiev’s Razumkov think tank, echoes other experts in saying that the food price jump is a seasonal fluctuation and that he sees no reason for worry. He expresses confidence that the government will keep inflation under control and predicts that prices will eventually level off.

Baranovskiy applauded the move to bring the minimum wage into line with the minimum pension.

“In a country where about 28% of the population are retirees, the difference led to a huge governmental subsidy for the [state] pension fund,” he said.

Despite disappointment over increasing prices, many Ukrainians say it is too early to lose hope in Yushchenko’s promise to bring prosperity.

Valentyna Kopychenko, 67, a retired forensic expert, has to work part-time as a computer operator to earn about $12 a month to supplement her pension. But she isn’t ready to give up on the new leadership.

“I believe in Yushchenko.... We need to arm ourselves with patience,” she said.