In a dramatic 30-minute speech today, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk asked parliament to support a range of belt-tightening measures for the nation to stay solvent and overcome the after-effects of the looting by overthrown President Viktor Yanukovych and his team.

“If the country were a commercial entity, we would be bankrupt,” Yatsenyuk said, adding that the nation will be some Hr 289 billion in the red this year, or $26 billion at the current exchange rate, an enormous figure considering the national budget is only about $50 billion.