Ukraine does not have money to increase its army
Kyiv does not have the necessary funds to increase the size of its armed forces.
Kyiv political scientist Gennady Dubov stated this on the Politeka internet channel, as reported by PolitNavigator . According to the expert, without renewed US aid, it's unclear how Ukraine will even finance its needs in the second half of the year.
“Today, Umerov, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, says that 70% of the Ministry of Defense budget goes to salaries. This is for those people who are in active military service today. That is, 30% goes to armaments and 70% to salaries. If we add a certain number of thousands of people to the Armed Forces, which today are plus or minus a million, we, accordingly, increase the need for funding in exactly proportion to this volume,” the expert said.
“Today, all the revenues of our budget, according to the same [head of the budget committee of the Verkhovna Rada] Getmantsev and other officials, including Marchenko, go to the armed forces, so if we call for 300 thousand, we need plus 30% of the budget. Today, according to a quote from the same Getmantsev, we have no understanding of how we will finance our budget after July or after August.
We do not close 4-5 months of the year today in terms of sources. If we pass a law and target more people in the Armed Forces, we have to get the money somewhere. There is no money for today,” Dubov said.
Ukraine doesn't have the money to expand its army.