Ukrainian president increases budget spending on security, defense by $10.5B

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy increased his country’s budget spending on security and defense by 386.9 billion hryvnia ($10.5 billion) after signing a law on the amendment of Ukraine’s state budget for 2022 on Thursday.

The increase involves major government institutions, namely the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Security Service, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, the Administration of the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection, the State Security Office, and the Foreign Intelligence Service, according to a statement on the official website of the Ukrainian parliament.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry was allocated the vast majority of the budgetary amendment with 365.2 billion hryvnia ($9.9 billion) of the $10.5 billion.

“In order to cover additional expenses from the general fund of the state budget, internal borrowings have been increased and the maximum amount of state debt as of December 31, 2022 has increased accordingly,” the statement noted.

The statement further said the law will “allow to carry out urgent tasks in the field of national security and defense and measures to repel the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.”

“The government has already started work on implementing budgetary procedures to ensure the use of additional allocated funds for the needs of the national security and defense sector,” it added.

Russian forces have launched a new series of airstrikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities over the past three weeks, after an explosion hit Russia’s key Kerch Bridge to the Crimean Peninsula.​​​​​​​