Govt acknowledges shortage of AFU funding; Poroshenko claims and calls to redirect 'every penny' to army
MP, leader of the European Solidarity party Petro Poroshenko, after a meeting of the leaders of parliamentary factions with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and relevant ministers, told journalists that government officials have acknowledged a huge shortage of money to finance the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), the political force said on its website on Thursday.
"How much money does Ukraine still need for the uninterrupted functioning of the Armed Forces of Ukraine? It turns out that the funding was calculated for seven or eight months, because by this time the authorities have undertaken to end the war. What if Putin does not want to end the war? What if Trump cannot end the war? The only guarantor of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our state is the Armed Forces of Ukraine. By the end of the year, we already lack UAH 500 billion," Poroshenko said following the meeting.
According to him, this was stated by Shmyhal and Minister of Finance of Ukraine Serhiy Marchenko.
"The only clear way out is to reduce all pre-election expenses and direct every penny to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," Poroshenko said.
He criticized some items of state expenditures and expressed his proposals for their redistribution to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. "Some 70 billion, which they saved for the purchase of Russian-Bulgarian reactors – to the Armed Forces, the profit of Naftogaz in the amount of 20 billion – to the Armed Forces. We expressed our position, we are waiting for the government's response, because they said that they need to calculate," Poroshenko said.