““All the funds of Ukrainian taxpayers will go exclusively to the provision of security and defense forces, to the manufacture and purchase of new weapons, drones and equipment””, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
The Prime Minister noted that “despite certain changes in the draft state budget, the priority remained unchanged – defense, defense capability and security of Ukraine. The government proposed to allocate 2 trillion 225 billion hryvnias for these needs.”
“All the funds of Ukrainian taxpayers will go exclusively to support the security and defense forces, to manufacture and purchase new weapons, drones and equipment,” Shmyhal added.
He also noted that other priorities of the budget remain the social sphere, education and medicine.
According to Shmyhal, by the second reading, state budget expenditures were increased by 50 billion hryvnias:
- an additional 24 billion hryvnias for education (12 billion hryvnias for additional payments to teachers and another 12 billion hryvnias for investment projects in the educational sphere);
- an additional 6.3 billion hryvnias for medicine
- an additional 5 billion hryvnias to support veterans.
- the road fund will not be financed in 2025, but they want to allocate 12.6 billion hryvnias for the repair of areas important for the defense and functioning of the state’s economy.
“At the same time, the government has foreseen the further work of the “eRecovery” program and its full financing,” the prime minister emphasized.
Earlier, on October 31, the Verkhovna Rada approved the conclusions and proposals of people’s deputies to the draft law on the state budget for 2025. 247 deputies supported the budget in the first reading.
On September 3, the Verkhovna Rada adopted in the first reading draft law No. 11417 on amendments to the budget for 2024, which increased defense spending by about 500 billion hryvnias.