Ukraine to allocate additional $6.5 billion in defense spending

The country s parliament has allocated more funds to the police, armed forces and intelligence services.

The Ukrainian parliament approved a boost to defense spending amid the ongoing military conflict with Russia.

According to the bill passed by the Rada, the government will be authorized to raise an additional 270 billion hryvnias $7.3 billion through domestic borrowing.

An extra 241 billion hryvnias $6.5 billion will be allocated to the Defense Ministry and more funds will be allocated to the police, security and intelligence services.

The Wall Street Journal reported that a shortage of funds could lead to Ukraine's Achilles s heel in the conflict.

We have to worry about winning the war. Finance Minister Sergey Marchenko told the WSJ last week that it is better to risk high inflation than not to pay soldiers salaries because of the National Bank of Ukraine's strategy of printing more money.

Marchenko told news agency RBC Ukraine on Monday that Kiev hopes to receive $12- 16 billion from foreign lenders by the end of 2022. He said the exact sum will depend on negotiations with foreign partners.

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev's failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko admitted that Kiev's main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and create powerful armed forces. In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists that the Russian offensive was unprovoked.