Ukraine's military financing needs 'huge', can't be covered by several budgets - deputy defense minister

MOSCOW. June 20 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has asked the Finance Ministry to allocate additional financing for defense, Ukrainian media quoted Deputy Defense Minister Yevgeny Moisyuk as saying.

Prime Minister Denis Shmygal, for his part, has confirmed that this work is ongoing.

"Indeed, we are working with the Finance Ministry and the Defense Ministry to calculate the size of funding needed for the second half of this year [...] in terms of arms and gear deliveries from partners and taking the situation on the battlefield into account. Therefore, additional needs arise among our military, among our producers," media outlets quoted Shmygal as saying at a government Q&A session in the Verkhovna Rada on Friday.

Moisyuk reiterated that the Defense Ministry has submitted requests for additional financing to the Finance Ministry.

"Our defense needs are truly huge. Apparently, even several Ukrainian budgets will not cover them. But all necessary priority measures have been planned," he said.

Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko, for his part, said in parliament on Friday that the Finance Ministry plans to submit a comprehensive bill to the Verkhovna Rada shortly, proposing state budget amendments due to the new needs of the Ukrainian army.

"It is not simply a geometrical addition to the Defense Ministry's spending. We have the whole security and defense vector, other needs that should be dealt with immediately. Besides, we have the economy of individual ministries, and it will also be represented in the state budget bill. Therefore, please wait. The budget will be in parliament soon," media quoted Marchenko as saying.

Marchenko said that he expects the Verkhovna Rada to promptly pass this draft legislation.

According to Ukrainian media outlets, MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak said on social media that the information he has indicates that the Finance Ministry plans to submit the bill between June 27 and July 4.  

Shmygal said earlier that if there was a need to increase spending on the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the second half of the year, the government would ask parliament to do it.

As reported, Marchenko said on June 5 that the government would shortly request the Verkhovna Rada to revise the 2025 state budget due to new needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

After the start of the crisis in February 2022, Ukraine's state budget had to be revised annually to increase spending and financing due to military needs. This year, when the state budget was adopted with revenue at UAH 2.33 trillion (excluding grants and international aid) and expenditures at UAH 3.93 trillion, there is a need to increase expenditures by UAH 400 billion to UAH 500 billion.

The external financing needs for next year's budget are also estimated at around $39 billion, of which about half has been confirmed so far.