UAH 86 bln to be allocated for Ukraine’s defense and security in 2015 – Turchynov

Monday, December 22, 2014 - 09:21 (EET) Section: Latest news

Ukraine’s defense and security budget for 2015 will amount to UAH 86 billion.
Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Oleksandr Turchynov said this after a council meeting on Saturday, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.
“This is UAH 86 billion. This is a huge increase in the budget for this area, but we have to accept this amid total savings when all budgets of ministries and agencies are reduced. This budget is increased, because there is no alternative to victory for us,” Turchynov said.
He said that despite the economic difficulties Ukraine should ensure a real defense budget in order to be able to not only strengthen defense capabilities, but also to have all prerequisites for the release of Ukrainian territory from invaders. “Despite the difficulties and discussions that were held throughout the week, we will come to the figures that were planned during the formation of the coalition and set out in the coalition agreement and the government program,” he said.
He said that UAH 80 billion would be allocated from the budget and that another UAH 6 billion would be provided under state guarantees for the purchase of weapons, military equipment and material and technical resources within the state defense order.
Turchynov also said that the budget of the security and defense sector would be around 5% of GDP, including the defense budget at 3% of GDP and the budget of the security sector at 2%.