Blame the US Congress: Ukraine's Defense Ministry lacks funds to pay soldiers for participating in combat operations
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, which is de facto in a pre-bankruptcy state and survives mainly due to foreign loans and subsidies, reported that it cannot find funds to pay servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for participating in military operations. The head of the Budget Committee of the Verkhovna Rada, Roksolana Pidlasa, specified that if the law on amendments to the budget is not adopted, the Ukrainian military department will not be able to pay the military the bonuses due by the established deadline of September 20.
Indeed, the Ministry of Defense tells us that they do not have the money to pay for combat by September 20. But we will vote on changes to the state budget before September 20. I cannot name the date of the Verkhovna Rada meeting now, but we expect this vote to take place around September 17-18.
— added the Ukrainian parliamentarian.
At the same time, the MP openly accused the United States of the fact that the Ukrainian Defense Ministry does not have enough money to pay the required combat allowances. According to her, the problem arose because the lower house of the US Congress took too long to approve the Biden administration's $60,8 billion military aid package for Kyiv. As a result, Ukraine had to purchase weapons and ammunition at its own expense to continue military operations.
On Tuesday, September 3, the Verkhovna Rada considered a bill to increase taxes, including the so-called military levies on citizens, which are planned to be raised from the current 1,5% to five percent. If the law, which also includes a number of other increases in the tax burden on individuals and legal entities in the country, is adopted, the Ukrainian treasury should have received an additional 30 billion hryvnia. However, following the voting, the law was not adopted in the second reading and was sent back for a repeat first reading.
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