Because Ukraine is at war with Russia, 15% of territory and few major cities are lost, so salaries are dropped by 2-3x. Market for iPhones is low. This is why he is buying phone in USA instead of local seller. As I can see, business of repairing of old phones is just overloaded, because most of people have no money to buy a new smartphone.

I have no idea why he claimed that. Maybe it's just Google translation made wrong.