Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko, after criticizing the local authorities for the unprofitable spending of funds during the war, said that the capital had financed the Defense Forces by 1.2 billion hryvnias since the beginning of the invasion.
"Last year, we allocated almost 850 million hryvnias from the city budget to finance Kyivʼs security and defense forces. Over 380 million in 6 months of this year. That is, more than 1.2 billion in total. And we continue to allocate funds," he noted.
According to the infographic published in the post of the Kyiv mayor, these funds were spent, in particular, on military uniforms, body armor, helmets, drones, radio stations, repairs of military equipment and transport. Kyiv also provides advanced aid to the fighters, which it attracts from international partners, such as cars, drones, Starlink systems, generators, and first-aid kits.
Klitschko noted that, according to the law, funds from local budgets cannot be transferred directly to the Armed Forces. Instead, funds are allocated in Kyiv to finance the needs of military units registered in the capital, at their request.
It should be noted that after February 24, 2022, Ukraine became dependent on external financing. From the beginning of 2023 alone, the state budget received $23.6 billion in partnership grants and loans, which were provided under one condition — the money would not be used for military purposes.
That is, now the state budget is conditionally divided in half:
- the defense budget, on which Ukraine can spend funds from internal sources (taxes, customs payments, profits of state-owned companies, funds from the placement of domestic state loan bonds — DSLB);
- budget for civil needs, for which the country can use internal resources, external aid and borrowing.
Klitschko is blamed for the inappropriate laying of cobblestones on Bohdan Khmelnytskyi Street, which created traffic jams in the city center. "Kyivavtodor" claims that the cost of repairs is 12 million hryvnias. For comparison, the major overhaul of Povitroflotsky prospect costs 376 million hryvnias.