Trillions of hryvnias are needed to repel Russian aggression. Needs of Armed Forces are much greater – People’s Deputy of "Holos", warrior Kostenko
The needs of the Ukrainian Defense Forces to counter Russia's armed aggression amount to several trillion hryvnias.
This was announced by the secretary of the Committee, People's Deputy of the Voice and soldier Roman Kostenko in an interview with Ukrinform, Censor.NET reports.
"As Churchill said, war requires three things - money, money and more money. The basis of everything is the economy. We need to pay taxes, collect them, and fight corruption so that all the money goes to important things. This year's total budget of Ukraine is almost ₴4 trillion, of which ₴2.2 trillion is the budget of the Security and Defense Forces. That is, we spend half of all funds on defense, and in fact, the entire amount we raise domestically is only ₴2 trillion. The rest is assistance from our partners, and this should be clearly understood," Kostenko said.
He emphasized that the needs of the Armed Forces are much greater than ₴1.5 trillion in defense industry and ₴500 billion in the procurement budget of the Ministry of Defense.
According to him, the Defense Forces need "trillions, trillions and trillions again," and the question now is how to provide more funds for the army.
"The war is very expensive now, and no single NATO country could confront Russia on its own, as it still has large stocks of weapons and equipment left over from the Soviet era," Kostenko said.
He added that the state is actively developing its own weapons production, but this process needs to be deepened for effective functioning.
