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Finance minister: Ukraine's budget lacks $5 billion for military spending

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Finance minister: Ukraine's budget lacks $5 billion for military spending
Ukraine's Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London, UK, on Wednesday, June 21, 2023. (Photo credit: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

There is a gap in Ukraine's state budget of $5 billion needed for military expenditures, Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko said in an interview with Hromadske Radio on May 22.

After the U.S. passed a long-awaited $61 billion aid package, the new funds covered Ukraine's social and humanitarian expenditures, Marchenko said.

"In practice, we have a big fiscal problem, an unresolved issue of military expenditures," Marchenko said.

Ukraine received minimal military assistance over the past six months from partners, which has put a strain on the budget in terms of additional military expenditures, according to the minister.

"At the moment, I think we can talk about a figure of about $5 billion... We are thinking about how we will cover it (the deficit) in the near future," Marchenko said.

Ukraine's $40 billion defense budget for this year includes $6 billion for arms procurement, Strategic Industries Minister Alexander Kamyshin said in April.

Kyiv received $1.5 billion in loans from the World Bank in late March. The private financing arm of the World Bank plans to invest $1.9 billion in projects in Ukraine over the next 18 months, Reuters reported in April.

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Kateryna Denisova

News Editor

Kateryna Denisova works as a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a news editor at the NV media outlet for four years, covering mainly Ukrainian and international politics. Kateryna holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv. She also was a fellow at journalism schools in the Czech Republic and Germany.

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