The Government has approved a draft law on amendments to the state budget for 2025. This was announced by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal during a session of the Cabinet of Ministers on June 25.
According to him, the document contain a proposal to increase funding for the Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine by UAH 412 billion this year, of which almost UAH 311 billion is earmarked for the Ministry of Defense.
Moreover, Denys Shmyhal accentuated, it was planned to allocate more than UAH 100 billion to build the capacities of the Ministry for Strategic Industries, the National Guard, the Border Guard Service, the Security Service of Ukraine and the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine.
“In other words, to support all those who destroy enemies and create effective tools to reduce their presence on Ukrainian soil,” underlined the Prime Minister.
Apart from that, he explained that the amendments to the country’s main budget contained plans to direct to the Ministry of Digital Transformation, in particular, UAH 6.3 billion for the development of defense innovations.
The Prime Minister said that in the first 5 months of this year, the Government allocated almost UAH 1 trillion for the defense and security of Ukraine.
“This is 2/3 of what we spend from the state budget. Compared to the same period last year, we have allocated 34% more funds for the army and security,” emphasized Denys Shmyhal.
Besides, according to the Head of Government, the approved draft law ensvisages that UAH 6.1 billion is allocated for the Ministry of Education so that starting from September 1, children in grades 5-11 in the frontline regions can receive free lunches at their schools. For the Ministry of Health, it is proposed to allocate UAH 3.1 billion for the procurement of medicines, in particular for the treatment of people with cancer, viral hepatitis, rare orphan diseases and hemophilia.
“In total, we plan to increase the expenditures of the general fund of the state budget by UAH 449 billion. The sources to cover these expenditures are an increase in budget revenues and in domestic borrowings. We clearly understand how we will finance absolutely all expenditures this year,” noted Denys Shmyhal. (Government portal)