The leader of the European Solidarity party, MP of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko proposes to close down corruption schemes and reduce expenses on the maintenance of the state apparatus instead of raising taxes, which will lead to increased inflation and a higher cost of living in the country, the website of the political force reports.

"The first demand of our faction: show where exactly you are going to spend UAH 500 billion and how this is related to the financing of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. We emphasize that this financing should be open, transparent and a priority, because we categorically will not allow continuing to finance ineffective expenses," Poroshenko said at a briefing.

The politician emphasized that the government's statements about the need to raise taxes to obtain additional UAH 500 billion must be publicly justified for taxpayers so that this does not turn into another corruption scheme.

According to him, funds for the needs of the defense forces can be freed up without raising taxes. To do this, it is necessary to reduce expenses on bureaucracy and non-transparent state programs, not plan new PR expenses, set a ceiling on the income of officials, block corruption schemes, ensure the transparency of budget expenditures, direct funds for the Armed Forces of Ukraine to a special fund, and publish information on the provision of expenses from receipts, including from partners.

"If we want to protect the expenses for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, then the funds, starting from military bonds and ending with special expenditure items of the Armed Forces, must be placed in a special budget fund... Transferring all these funds to a special budget fund with strict criminal liability, a ban on financing other items will definitely guarantee that they will no longer scare us that we need UAH 500 billion for the Armed Forces. All military needs must be provided. But the needs of the State Bureau of Investigations, the prosecutor's office, the pseudo-military, who are only engaged in corrupt pressure on business, must be stopped," Poroshenko emphasized.

He noted that ensuring the necessary investment climate is one of Ukraine's obligations as a candidate for EU membership, and if large-scale corruption schemes are not blocked, then even UAH 500 billion will not be enough for the army.

"Billions of hryvnias for industrial parks, investment nannies, and other corruption schemes that violate the principle of free competition. Instead of handing it over to the Armed Forces, we are offered to raise taxes, take money out of the pockets of the least protected strata of the population, kill Ukrainian business, tax it under the so-called military tax, which will be a de facto tax on circulation and lead to a multiple increase in prices and an increase in poverty in Ukraine," the leader of European Solidarity believes.

The politician called for unification in parliament without "any political coloring" to ensure victory in the war. "We must support our soldiers. For this, Ukraine has the support of partners with multi-billion programs, there is the support of the Ukrainian people and there is the unity that we must ensure. But unity is not around politicians. Unity is around our state and the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And for this, we are now starting another stage in the Verkhovna Rada," Poroshenko said.