Ukraine doesn’t have enough funds to call up 500,000 people — lawmaker
Zheleznyak said the country’s budget has earmarked less money for military spending in 2024, compared with the current year, and most Western partners have never authorized spending their aid on military needs
MOSCOW, December 25. /TASS/. Ukraine's budget does not have enough funds to carry out a military mobilization of 500,000 people under a plan announced by President Vladimir Zelensky, said Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak.
"The president made a mistake. It will require not half a billion hryvnias, but more," he said in a video that the Ukrainska Pravda news organization posted to YouTube. "We don't have this money."
Zheleznyak said the country’s budget has earmarked less money for military spending in 2024, compared with the current year, and most Western partners have never authorized spending their aid on military needs.
On December 19, Zelensky said that the military had asked for 500,000 more people to be drafted into the armed forces, which would cost an additional 500 billion hryvnias (about $13.4 billion).