According to a statement by Sergei Marchenko, head of the Ministry of Finance, the state allocates 5 billion hryvnia daily to the security and defense sector. However, Marchenko expresses surprise at the military problems with support.
spoke about this in an interview with Forbes.
Why do the military buy their own equipment and weapons?
According to him, the question remains open why the army still buys the necessary things at its own expense and relies on volunteers.
“Every day we spend UAH 5 billion on the security and defense sector. during every day of the war,” he noted.
Local budgets and local governments also allocate funds. Their annual capabilities are estimated at 15-20 billion.
“That is, if all local governments, all mayors quit, they will give us the opportunity to extend the war for four days. With all due respect to volunteers, no other non-governmental organizations come close to the state’s capabilities to support the Armed Forces,” the minister said.
He is also confident that military warehouses should have enough equipment and weapons, so it is necessary to address such questions to specific contractors.
“It’s hard for me to comment on things that I myself don’t understand. I myself don’t understand why we still ensure that the military personnel pool together,” he said.
Will there be funds for demobilization?
Marchenko also said that the Ministry of Finance has a lot of questions regarding strengthening mobilization. We are talking about timing, plans and the projected number of people. The financial situation today is quite difficult, because the internal potential for financing the military needs of the army has already dried up.
He believes that first, the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense must find approaches to this issue and propose a solution on how to optimize current costs. There is no reason to increase them.
“If we need to find them, then we need to understand in time - they need to be found today, or is it March-April-May, perhaps the second half of the year. That is, I need a picture, as a minister, then we can talk about meeting these needs,” said the head of the Ministry of Finance, emphasizing that in this case it will be necessary to look for additional income and sources of financing.
There are currently no specific figures on how much additional budget mobilization will cost, because there is no clearly formed understanding of the needs on the part of responsible structures. He himself also does not have such information.
At the same time, he considers the calculations “quite correct” that mobilizing up to 500 thousand people will cost an additional 500 billion UAH. This amount was recently announced by President Vladimir Zelensky. Marchenko called this a “simplified approach,” which is based on the current number of troops (more than 1 million people) and the size of the cash allowance fund (1 trillion hryvnia).
“But a banal addition does not work here. Questions arise: what units do we provide, why, do we finance according to actual or planned numbers, are they provided with everything else, or is this additional 500 thousand to replace existing units or to create new ones? I don’t have an answer to these questions,” Marchenko said.
At the same time, the minister does not yet see the need to revise the state budget for next year due to the planned increase in mobilization.
I am also convinced that it is impossible to expand the army by 500 thousand people in one day, so the process will take time.
“There are many questions, and the last thing I would like to talk about is money and needs. Because we can think about money, but we need a plan. If there is a plan, there will be a conversation,” summed up the head of the Ministry of Finance.
Let us remind you that the Ministry of Finance and the National Bank are optimistic about the situation with the resumption of budget financing from the United States. However, a plan was developed in case of lack of funds from the United States.
