Ukraine's Rada passes bill increasing expenditures in 2025 state budget by UAH 325 bln

At a plenary session on Tuesday, October 21, the Verkhovna Rada supported, in principle and in general, bill No. 14103, which increases state budget expenditures for 2025 by UAH 324.7 billion for the national security and defense sector.

According to MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak (the Holos parliamentary faction), 297 members of parliament supported the decision.

"The government actively pushed this week to avoid delays in military salaries. But at the same time, it refused to cut absurd expenditures like cashbacks and roads. We submitted alternative proposals, but the Ministry of Finance categorically opposed it," the MP said.

Verkhovna Rada Budget Committee Head Roksolana Pidlasa earlier said that the bill proposes allocating UAH 4.3 billion for drone procurement carried out by the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection, UAH 1.3 billion for the Security Service of Ukraine, UAH 918 million for the State Special Transport Service, and UAH 83 million for the State Border Guard Service.

In addition, UAH 28.8 million is to be allocated to the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, and another UAH 8 million to the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine.

Pidlasa reminded of the sources to cover these expenditures with the largest being UAH 294.3 billion from international assistance, another UAH 10.4 billion is expected to be raised through cuts in non-military expenditures, and UAH 20 billion will be covered by the expected increase in revenues from personal income tax and the military levy.