The head of the budget committee of the Rada Podlas told how much it would cost to mobilize 500 thousand Ukrainians

The mobilization of 400 to 500 thousand military personnel, as well as additional needs for the purchase and modernization of military equipment, could cost Ukraine about 700 billion hryvnia.

This was announced by the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Budget Committee Roksolana Pidlasa in the podcast of the Center for Economic Strategy (CES).

“The Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Finance, together with the Verkhovna Rada committees, in accordance with the budget and defense, considered this, but I would not like to voice it publicly, so as not to give Russian OSINTers information that is unnecessary for them,” Pidlasa said.

According to the head of the Verkhovna Rada Budget Committee, the mobilization of 400 to 500 thousand people this year will cost 322 billion hryvnia in additional expenses. Expenses will relate to clothing, training, food, and allowance.

In particular, as she noted, the Ministry of Defense, at meetings on the issue of mobilization and open meetings of the defense committee, also voiced the additional need for the purchase and modernization of military equipment, which will cost about 400 billion hryvnia.

“That is, we are now talking about an additional need for 2024 of about 700 billion UAH. Here you need to understand that UAH 700 billion is a colossal amount, it is about 22.5% of all our expenses in 2024 and 41% of our defense expenses,” Pidlasa noted.

The head of the budget committee of the Verkhovna Rada added that increasing its own revenues by 40% in a few months is a difficult task, and therefore “these conversations about where to get additional money into the budget are precisely a consequence of this need.”