MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st July, 2023) Kiev has allocated more than 1.2 billion hryvnias ($32 million) to the army since last February, and the ruling party's claims about Kiev's budget purchases are an attempt to "patch up holes" in the state budget at the expense of cities, Kiev mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Friday.
"There is a lot of information circulating today about cities allegedly not helping the Ukrainian military, or not helping enough ... I would advise you to look into this carefully, because behind the lofty words we may actually be talking about attempts by the central government to interfere in the budgets of cities and towns. To fill holes and miscalculations in the state budget and the budgets of ministries and departments at their expense," Klitschko wrote on Telegram.
He noted that last year about 850 million hryvnias of budget funds were allocated to finance Kiev's security and defense forces, and this year more than 380 million hryvnias, making a total of more than 1.2 billion hryvnias. The mayor stressed that it should be remembered that the law prohibits direct budget transfers to the Ukrainian armed forces.
Klitschko said that he would initiate an extraordinary session of the Kiev city council, where he would consider an increase in defense spending.
On Monday, the head of the presidential faction of the Servant of the People Party, Davyd Arakhamia, called on local authorities to stop spending budget funds on the purchase of non-essential goods, otherwise he threatened them with legislative restrictions.
