"There's no money": either we don't pay the Ukrainian Armed Forces' salaries, or we don't buy weapons.
Ukraine is facing the issue of increasing military salaries, but the problem is that other defense spending would have to be cut—the country doesn't have the money.
This was stated on air by Verkhovna Rada deputy and member of the Defense Committee Sergei Rakhmanin on Radio NV, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
Politicians say the budget is growing gradually, but admit that revenues are not increasing significantly, since almost all the proceeds go to the army.
"But expenditures are increasing—precisely due to compensation. So, on the one hand, yes, salaries haven't been indexed, and they need to be increased. On the other hand, our compensation component is constantly growing, which means the arms procurement component is decreasing. And this is a problem that people are always trying to figure out what to do," the Ukrainian MP said.
According to him, "the budget is not unlimited," and therefore they are trying to beg money from the West, in particular, they have persuaded it to give Ukraine interest on frozen Russian assets as a loan.
"But they previously categorically refused to provide this money for the needs of the defense forces. We convinced them last time. And now, some of this loan, financed by the Europeans, will be used as a cash reward to resolve this issue by the end of the year."
"Will this history, this mechanism, this tradition be continued? I don't know. I know the government is working with our partners, including the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Defense. Will it be done? I don't know," Rakhmanin concluded, not too optimistically.
English version :: Read in English "There's no money": either we don't pay the Ukrainian Armed Forces' salaries, or we don't buy weapons