You're reading: Defense Ministry to need Hr 44.7 billion in budget funds in 2015

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry will need Hr 44.7 billion in budget funds in 2015, mainly for the maintenance of the Armed Forces, Defense Ministry spokeswoman Viktoria Kushnir has said.

“The Defense Ministry’s budget request for next year is Hr 44.7 billion. Of this amount, Hr 14.1 billion is to be spent on the development of arms and military equipment, Hr 1.9 billion on the training of troops, and Hr 28.7 billion on the maintenance of the Armed Forces,” she said at a briefing in Kyiv on Dec. 25.

She said that the ministry’s demand for financial resources in 2014 was Hr 31.307 billion and that Hr 26.347 billion had been obtained from the budget as of Dec. 25. These funds were used to purchase 44,600 bulletproof vests, 22,000 Kevlar helmets, 240,000 pairs of footwear, and over 150,000 tonnes of fuel. In addition, she said, these funds were also used for the receipt of modernized and restored arms and equipment for the troops and for the payment of wages to personnel and provision of them with food.

Kushnir also said that the Defense Ministry had received Hr 153 million as a charity, including about Hr 70 million from legal entities, Hr 43 million from individuals and Hr 37 million from mobile operators. Another Hr 3 million was transferred to foreign currency accounts.

As reported, the Defense Ministry said earlier that the draft state budget for 2015 envisaged a significant increase in spending on the needs of the Armed Forces, including on social security.

The National Security and Defense Council decided at a meeting last Saturday that funds to be allocated from Ukraine’s budget for defense and security in 2015 should account for 5 percent of GDP, including 3 percent of GDP for defense alone.

“This is Hr 86 billion, which is a huge increase in the budget of this sector,” NSDC Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov said at the meeting.

In his words, of the amount, Hr 80 billion will be provided as budget funds, while Hr 6 billion will be provided as state guarantees against the purchase of arms, equipment and necessary supplies for the army.