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Ukraine to spend 30% of budget for defense, foreign debt repayment in 2015

Last Saturday, the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council decided to allot 5% of GDP for defense and security in the state budget for 2015

Ukraine's Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko Maxim Nikitin/TASS

Ukraine's Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko

© Maxim Nikitin/TASS

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KIEV, December 23. /TASS/. Ukraine will use 30% of budget expenditures for defense and foreign debt repayment in 2015, Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko said on Tuesday.

“We need to allocate 30% of expenditures for defense and foreign debt repayment from the state budget,” she said, outlining a Ukrainian draft budget for 2015 in the Verkhovna Rada domestic parliament.

Last Saturday, the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council decided to allot 5% of GDP for defense and security in the state budget for 2015. “We will allocate 5% of GDP that makes 86 billion hryvnias ($5.4 billion) that is an enormous sum for us,” secretary of the domestic security council Oleksandr Turchynov said. Meanwhile, he noted that 3% of GDP is assigned for defense and 2% for security.

According to reports made in early December, Ukraine has paid $14 billion on foreign debts, including with due account of Ukraine’s Naftogaz debt, Prime Minister ArsenIy Yatsenyuk said earlier. Kiev has received $9 billion of different types of foreign financial aid. Meanwhile, domestic foreign debt stands at $72.9 billion.

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