MADRID 28 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, signed this Thursday new general budgets of Ukraine that estimate a total expenditure of 3.6 trillion hryvnias – about 82 billion euros -, of which more than half are allocated to Defense in the midst of the Russian invasion, which began at the end of February 2022.
This was confirmed by the Ukrainian Prime Minister, Denis Shmigal, on his official Telegram channel, where he highlighted that the “priority” of these new budgets “continues to be the protection of the State.” The Ukrainian Parliament approved the general budget in mid-November.
Of the total budget, around 2.23 million hryvnias – nearly 51 billion euros – will be allocated to the financing of the Security and Defense Forces, the acquisition and production of weapons, drones and military equipment in the middle of a war that already exceeds a thousand days and that advances without an apparent solution of continuity.
Likewise, another 420,000 million hryvnias will go to social security – about 9,500 million euros -, 217,000 million more – almost 495 million euros – will go to Health and another 200,000 million hryvnias – more than 455 million – – to Education. “The Government is clear that we will pass the exercise with confidence,” said Shmigal.
The high budgetary expenditure is hardly alleviated by the forecast income of about two trillion grivas – about 45.5 billion euros – with which Ukraine’s deficit is expected to continue increasing, although kyiv is confident that it will continue to have ” the strong support of the partners”.