‘Ukraine’s budget lacks funds for mobilizing 500 thousand people’, – MP says

Ukraine doesn’t have the money to mobilize half a million people.

This information stated Yaroslav Zheleznyak, a deputy of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada.

“I think Mr. President made a slight mistake, it’s not half a billion hryvnias needed for mobilizing 500 thousand people, it’s more, based on the figures we have. Clearly, we don’t have such money,” the politician said.

He reminded that the defense budget for 2024 has been reduced by 300 billion hryvnias (almost eight billion dollars) compared to 2023.

“It’s already evident: the figures don’t add up. There’s no such money. Only Norway has allowed its funds to be spent on military needs. All other partners will never provide money for that,” Zheleznyak concluded.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during a press conference on December 19, for the first time mentioned figures related to a new large-scale mobilization. According to him, the General Staff of Ukraine is requesting an additional 450-500 thousand people to be sent to the troops. Zelensky mentioned that such a mobilization would cost Ukraine 500 billion hryvnias (13.4 billion dollars).

Later, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov, stated that mobilizing such a number of people would take at least a year.