Senate proposes to ban use of US money to pay pensions in Ukraine

The document states this.

The bill proposed by the Senate includes about USD 60 billion to support Ukraine in its war against Russia.

"The money allocated for budget support (...) cannot be used to reimburse pensions," the text of the bill says.

What the Ukrainian parliament says

Roksolana Pidlasa, head of the Verkhovna Rada Budget Committee, said that this would not affect the payment of pensions, as Ukraine pays them from domestic revenues.

"Pensions are paid from the unified social tax. The state budget covers the Pension Fund's deficit and pays pensions to certain categories of pensioners who used to work for the state. Expenditures for the Pension Fund are a protected item of state budget expenditures, they are paid almost immediately after military expenditures, so there will be no problems with pensions, even if direct budgetary assistance from the United States is less than expected," LIGA.net quoted her as saying.

• In December 2023, Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko said that Kyiv might have to delay salaries for 500,000 civil servants and 1.4 million teachers, as well as payments to 10 million pensioners if Western aid did not arrive. Later, she clarified that Ukraine has a plan B in case of a delay in receiving funds from foreign partners, but hopes that it will not be needed because the money will arrive on time.
• In turn, the Ministry of Social Policy assured that pensioners have no reason to worry.