Parliament adds $8bn to defence expenditures following 11.5-hour hiatus
The Ukrainian parliament on Friday approved a bill increasing state budget expenditures by more than UAH 300 billion (USD 8.1 billion), chairman of the budget committee Roksolana Pidlasa said.
The bill was debated for more than 11 hours, starting on Thursday, because of hundreds of amendments that had been submitted.
"Military personnel will be paid salaries on time in October and in November-December," Ms Pidlasa, from the ruling Servant of the People faction, stressed.
The bill was supported by 313 MPs, Yaroslav Zhelezniak, an MP from the opposition Voice [Holos] party, said.
The additional expenditures will be allocated to the following agencies:
- UAH 211 billion, to the defence ministry
- UAH 79.2 billion, to the ministry of internal affairs
- UAH 0.6 billion, to the state special communications service
- UAH 4.2 billion, to the security service of Ukraine, or SBU
- UAH 4.4 billion, to the ministry of strategic industries
- UAH 2.5 billion, to Ukrainian defence intelligence, or GUR
- UAH 0.5 billion, to foreign intelligence service
- UAH 0.2 billion, to the state protection department
The increase in expenditures is expected to be made mainly by increasing the state debt.
It is the second major revision of the state budget in 2023. In March, the parliament increased it by a record UAH 537 billion, after which its revenues increased to UAH 1.39 trillion and expenditures, to UAH 3.08 trillion.
Now, Ukrainian state expenditures will increase to UAH 3.3 trillion, and the budget deficit will exceed UAH 2 trillion for the first time in Ukrainian history.
