{"id":1404248,"date":"2026-06-12T11:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T08:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/the-new-budget-outraged-defenders-where-did-40-billion-hryvnias-disappear-to\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T11:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T08:35:09","slug":"the-new-budget-outraged-defenders-where-did-40-billion-hryvnias-disappear-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/the-new-budget-outraged-defenders-where-did-40-billion-hryvnias-disappear-to\/","title":{"rendered":"The new budget outraged defenders: where did 40 billion hryvnias disappear to?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Verkhovna Rada supported amendments to the state budget for 2026, which provide for an increase in defense spending, but the decision sparked sharp criticism among the military and politicians due to the redistribution of funds.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p> People&#8217;s Deputy from &#8220;European Solidarity&#8221; Maria Ionova expressed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Y4Wi05ke5tM\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">indignation<\/a> that 40 billion hryvnias were withdrawn from the weapons procurement program, redirecting them to the reserve fund.<\/p>\n<p> &#8220;The salaries of military personnel have not been raised by a single penny and they are not going to be raised. There is no political will,&#8221; the studio guest said.<\/p>\n<p> She believes that such a decision takes resources directly from the frontline fighters who are in critical need of weapons. According to her, these billions were withdrawn from a specific defense article, while funding for other public sectors continues to grow. The MP added that such actions destroy internal trust and demotivate defenders.<\/p>\n<p> https:\/\/youtu.be\/Y4Wi05ke5tM?t=158<\/p>\n\t\t<aside class=\"shortcode-also\" data-title=\"Read also\" >\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/billions-for-the-army-what-the-authorities-are-hiding-behind-their-loud-statements\/\">Billions for the army: what the authorities are hiding behind their loud statements<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\n<p> The approved changes to the budget were supported by 242 parliamentarians. The document provides for increased funding for security and defense through external borrowing, but opposition deputies warn against financial mistakes in wartime.<\/p>\n<p> Non-partisan MP Oksana Savchuk also stated on the air of &#8220;Pryamoy&#8221; about deep indignation among military personnel due to uneven wage increases in the public sector. While the salaries of employees of the court security, NABU, prosecutor&#8217;s office, and police were revised upwards, the army personnel were left without the promised bonuses.<\/p>\n<p> &#8220;A serviceman, and I say this responsibly, is forced to buy gasoline from his own salary, because what is given to the unit is not enough for him,&#8221; Savchuk noted.<\/p>\n<p> The parliamentarian noted that soldiers on the frontline have to pay for Starlink and upgrade their own ammunition. She stressed that this situation has an extremely negative impact on the morale of National Guardsmen and other servicemen on the frontline in the Donetsk region.<\/p>\n<p> According to her, the promises of the state leadership to increase financial support for the military in the combat zone have still not been implemented in real legislative changes. This causes justifiable dissatisfaction among those who are on the defense.<\/p>\n\t\t<aside class=\"shortcode-also\" data-title=\"Read also\" data-right>\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/card-games-with-the-budget-the-government-was-accused-of-withdrawing-40-billion-from-the-defense-budget\/\">\u201cCard games\u201d with the budget: the government was accused of withdrawing 40 billion from the defense budget<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\n<p> On the eve of the Eurosolidarity MPs, they stated that the authorities spent the funds from the Reserve Fund for 2026 during the first quarter, and now <a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/vyluchennia-40-mlrd-hrn-z-biudzhetu-minoborony-u-yevrosolidarnosti-poiasnyly-naslidky-takoho-rishennia\/\">decided to get into the pocket of the defense budget<\/a> , withdrawing UAH 40 billion from it. At the same time, the MPs emphasize, the funds from the Reserve Fund were spent not on reconstruction needs, but on cashback and other populist initiatives.<\/p>\n<p> In addition, the People&#8217;s Deputy of Ukraine from the European Solidarity faction, Nina Yuzhanina, reported that <a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/zminy-do-derzhbiudzhetu-chy-diysno-vlada-zbilshyla-finansuvannia-armii\/\">there was no real increase in the internal financing of the Ministry of Defense<\/a> . Instead, the authorities redistributed European loan funds and cut their own defense capabilities by a huge amount.<\/p>\n<p> As a reminder, the government decided <a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/uriad-vyluchyv-40-miliardiv-z-oboronnoho-biudzhetu-chym-tse-zahrozhuie\/\">to withdraw 40 billion hryvnias from the Defense Ministry&#8217;s budget<\/a> , which were planned to be spent on the purchase of weapons from its own revenues. However, these plans are now under threat, despite the Cabinet&#8217;s promises to replace financing with loans.<\/p>\n<p> In addition, experts express concern over the actions of the Cabinet of Ministers, which is engaged in \u201c <a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/kartiarski-ihry-z-biudzhetom-uriad-zvynuvatyly-u-vyvedenni-40-miliardiv-z-oboronky\/\">questionable redistribution of funds<\/a> \u201d between budget items. In particular, it is about the withdrawal of 40 billion hryvnias from the defense sector to the reserve fund, which may stop the increase in military salaries.<\/p>\n<p> Also follow <strong>\u201cPryamim\u201d<\/strong> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Facebook<\/a> , <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/prm_ua\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">X<\/a> , <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/+rtV4dxYu2_cyNjVi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Telegram<\/a> , and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Instagram.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Verkhovna Rada supported amendments to the state budget for 2026, which provide for an increase in defense spending, but the decision sparked sharp criticism among the military and politicians due to the redistribution of funds. People&#8217;s Deputy from &#8220;European Solidarity&#8221; Maria Ionova expressed indignation that 40 billion hryvnias were withdrawn from the weapons procurement [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":1302118,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76872,76892,76871],"class_list":["post-1404248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-feed","category-economy","category-news-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1404248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1302118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1404248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1404248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}