Ukraine reveals monthly expenses to maintain army

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said that the country had been spending 130 billion hryvnias (roughly $4.4 billion) per month on maintaining the armed forces.

He made the statement in an interview with the local news service LB.ua on July 3, according to UNIAN.

The amount is slightly less than the annual budget of Ukraine’s Armed Forces in the period before the start of the full-scale invasion of Russia, Shmyhal noted.

“If earlier the maintenance of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the army cost nearly 156 billion hryvnias ($5.28 billion) annually, now only the monthly maintenance costs 130 billion hryvnias (about $4.4 billion). Of course, we have greatly increased social payments, the demining expenses, the cost of urgent restoration, the expenditures on internally displaced persons,” the prime minister said.

Shmyhal said the entire monthly budget of Ukraine was about 250 billion hryvnias ($8.46 billion), of which 100 billion hryvnias ($3.39 billion) come from taxes and customs.

"There is a difference, which is $4-5 billion hryvnias - this is a monthly need," the head of government said.

Ukraine has direct budgetary support from the EU member states, Shmyhal said, highlighting the grants and credit assistance coming into the country from international financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB), and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).