By KYIV. Jan 18 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Kyiv City Council at a meeting on Thursday, January 18, plans to allocate UAH 500 million for the purchase of drones for the military, said mayor of the capital Vitali Klitschko.
“Today we have to make a decision and make changes to the Defender of Kyiv program in order to allocate UAH 500 million through it for the purchase of drones. We will transfer them to military units. Let me remind you that according to various programs and sources of the capital’s budget, last year we found almost UAH 7 billion to help the security and defense forces. That is, 10% of the estimate is the most among all cities in Ukraine. And not 1%, as someone lies and manipulates! Of these UAH 7 billion, almost UAH 1 billion went to the purchase of various types of drones by the military. And the city has also allocated funds and purchased, at the request of the military, electronic warfare equipment that effectively protects Kyiv today,” Klitschko said, according to the mayor’s press service.
He also recalled that the capital paid financial assistance to Kyiv defenders and their families. It allocated funds for the purchase of apartments for defenders and their families. Klitschko stressed that in 2024, the capital’s authorities will continue to do this despite the fact that the “military” personal income tax was taken away from Kyiv. Despite the fact that the capital already pays 60 percent of personal income tax to the state budget.
“In such circumstances, when adopting the capital’s budget for this year, we have previously provided UAH 1.2 billion to help the Armed Forces. But we will continue, as we did last year, to look for opportunities to add more funds. To direct them to other articles in order to help our defenders as much as possible. Therefore, in fact, we will allocate many times more funds to help the military,” Klitschko stressed.
