The Defense Minister Rustem Umyerov: More than 250 billion hryvnias are not enough to pay the military by the end of the year

By the end of the year, Ukraine lacks 250 billion hryvnias to fund the military.

The Defense Minister Rustem Umyerov informed about this in the parliament on September 6 during his appointment.

The minister is thinking of asking for 251 billion, of which 227 billion will be for monetary support for October-December, 24 billion hryvnias will be for one-time monetary assistance. Rustem Umyerov proposes to take income from personal income tax (PIT) for payments to military personnel and direct them to defense needs.

Currently, more than a million people are involved in the Ukrainian defense sector, of which more than 800 000 are in the Armed Forces. Because of the war, defense spending is growing rapidly. Umerov reminded that every year Ukraine spends more than 3 trillion hryvnias. Of them, 1.6 trillion are for the security and defense sector. The revenue part of the budget is only 1.4 trillion, that is, more than 1.5 trillion is additionally needed to continue the struggle.

• On September 6, Rustem Umerov was appointed Minister of Defense instead of Oleksiy Reznikov. Umerov outlined five main priorities in his position: military-centricity (military is the highest value); The Ministry should become the main institution for the coordination of the Defense Forces; expanding the geography of allies (even with unexpected partnerships); zero tolerance for corruption and digitization and development of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex.