Ukraine's parliament votes to increase defence spending to UAH 303bn

This was reported by Roksolana Pidlasa, chairman of the Budget Committee, and Yaroslav Zheleznyak, MP.

Pidlasa said that the amendments to the draft law were considered for more than 11.5 hours, but there were no significant changes. 

Zheleznyak said that 313 MPs voted in favor of the draft law.

The allocated funds will be mainly used for defense needs, namely:

• Ministry of Defence - UAH 211 billion
• Ministry of Internal Affairs - UAH 79 billion
• Ministry of Strategic Industries - UAH 4.3 billion
• Security Service of Ukraine - 4.2 billion UAH
• Defense Intelligence of Ukraine - UAH 2.5 billion
• State Special Communications Service - UAH 570 million
• Foreign Intelligence Service - UAH 500 million
• State Protection Department - UAH 230.5 million

In addition, the budget increased spending on:

• Ministry of Social Policy - UAH 16.5 billion
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs - UAH 1.3 billion
• Ministry of Education and Science - UAH 572 million
• Ministry of Energy - UAH 350 million
• State Bureau of Investigation - UAH 219 million

"These changes set two records in the history of Ukraine: for the first time, the general budget expenditures will exceed UAH 3.39 trillion, and the deficit will exceed UAH 2 trillion," Zheleznyak said.

Earlier, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that the draft State Budget of Ukraine for 2024 increased spending on preparing the production of defense products to UAH 55.8 billion.