The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has run out of money to pay for the army's combat expenses.
The chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament's Budget Committee said that the Ministry of Defense has run out of money to pay for the army's combat expenses.
According to RIA Novosti on September 6, Roksolana Pidlasa, Chairwoman of the Budget Committee of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament), stated that Ukraine no longer has the budget to pay for military expenditures.
“The Ministry of Defense told us that they don’t have the money to pay for combat operations before September 20th. But we will vote on changes to the state budget before September 20th. I can’t specify the date of the Verkhovna Rada meeting now, but it will be around September 17th or 18th. We are very much looking forward to this vote,” said the Chairman of the Budget Committee of the Ukrainian Parliament.
According to Ms. Pidlasa, the difficulties arose due to delays in funding from the US earlier in the year. Because of this, Kyiv had to purchase weapons with its own money, spending funds that were originally allocated to pay for the military.
In August 2024, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal announced a severe defense budget deficit of over $12 billion.
According to the Financial Times, Ukraine has allocated nearly half of its annual budget of $87 billion to defense spending, but only $46 billion comes from domestic revenue.
Ukrainian Deputy Speaker of Parliament Alexandra Ustinova drew attention to the fact that gaps in the state budget are being narrowed with support from Western funding. Accordingly, if the US stops providing support, the Ukrainian government will be forced to rely on the G7 countries.
