Russia-Ukraine war: Ukraine increases military expenditures by $8.3 billion

As Russia continues to attack Ukraine and the war rages on, the Ukrainian parliament has increased military expenditures by $8.3 billion. According to Yaroslav Zheleznyak, the first deputy head of the parliamentary finance committee, the Ukrainian parliament amended the state budget on May 31, increasing spending on national security and defence by $8.3 billion.

Earlier, on May 12, Ukraine's finance minister stated that the war-torn country has been forced to spend 245.1 billion hryvnias (approximately $8.3 billion) on its war with Russia rather than development, providing a glimpse into the massive economic cost of Moscow's February 24 invasion. The figure, which the Ukrainian government has not previously disclosed, reveals the economic quagmire the country is in as its soldiers try to keep Russia's renewed offensive in the country's east at bay.

According to finance minister Serhiy Marchenko, the money was spent on everything from buying and repairing weapons to providing emergency assistance to internally displaced people. According to data from the social policy ministry, there are 2.7 million officially registered IDPs, though the true figure is many times higher.

According to Ukraine's finance minister, Kyiv urgently requires further international assistance since it is compelled to spend billions of euros on emergency spending. According to yearly 2021 expenditures of 1.84 trillion hryvnias ($62.28 billion), the $8 billion in war expenses equates to more than a month's worth of entire state spending. Kyiv, according to Marchenko, is contemplating several forms of external financial assistance.

Russia-Ukraine war

According to the mayor of Sievierodonetsk, Russian forces have occupied half of the eastern Ukrainian city, which is crucial to Moscow's aspirations to complete the control of the industrial Donbas region. "The city is essentially being destroyed ruthlessly block by block," Oleksandr Striuk stated. Heavy street warfare persisted, he claimed, and artillery barrages threatened the lives of the estimated 13,000 inhabitants who remained in the destroyed city, which formerly housed more than 100,000 people.

Further, Ukraine's chief prosecutor said on May 31 that several thousand suspected war crimes have been identified in the eastern Donbass region, where Russian forces are advancing. The cases in the industrial region are among approximately 15,000 reported in Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on February 24, according to prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova.

Image: AP