Brigades of military units will receive from 1 to 10 million hryvnia from these funds.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine allocated an additional 657 million UAH to the Ministry of Defense to meet the urgent needs of the military. Funds have been allocated from the state budget reserve fund for the urgent needs of combat brigades.
According to the government portal, out of UAH 657 million, UAH 10.7 million will be allocated to the State Special Transport Service. Separately from this amount, UAH 10.524 million was allocated to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense.
“The Ministry of Defense will use this money for the purchase of equipment and weapons, optical and thermal imaging devices, communications equipment, the production of ammunition, repair and maintenance of equipment, as well as spare and component parts for it. Each brigade forms this need individually,” the government explains.
It is noted that, according to the approach of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the funds allocated by the Cabinet of Ministers are distributed as follows: from 1 to 10 million UAH to each brigade. They will be distributed according to the following principles:
- priority is given to military units directly involved in hostilities;
- the organizational structure and number of personnel are taken into account (conditionally, more for infantry, less for pilots, because aircraft are maintained centrally).
“Now the Ministry of Defense is awaiting the formed needs of each military unit, after which the calculations will be summarized by the General Staff. Then the Ministry of Defense will prepare a corresponding request to the Ministry of Finance, after which the funds are sent to the Ministry of Defense and sent to military units,” the Cabinet of Ministers added.
Commenting on the government’s decision, Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Dzhigir noted that the allocation of funds from the reserve fund was caused by changes in the administration of the “military personal income tax” in 2024.
“From now on, 10% of the portion of the military personal income tax, which is credited to the state budget, will automatically be returned to military units in proportion to the tax they paid. Since this proportion can be calculated only after personal income tax is paid in January, the new mechanism will start working in February. Therefore, the government is closing ” financial gap” in January allocated funds from the reserve fund for urgent defense needs,” he emphasized.
Defense Spending: Important News
Last September, Prime Minister Denis Shmygal announced that the Cabinet of Ministers had submitted a bill proposing that the personal income tax collected from military personnel, which now accounts for the lion’s share of local budgets, be used for the purchase of equipment and domestic production of weapons.
According to official information, in 2023 the state has allocated UAH 700 billion for military salaries, of which army personnel will pay a tax of 18%, that is, more than UAH 120 billion.
