Why have expenses for deputies increased, but funding for the military is not provided?

The Verkhovna Rada approved the budget for 2025, which caused significant criticism due to the increase in expenses for deputy activities. At the same time, no increase in funding for the military is provided.

People’s Deputy, Secretary of the Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence Roman Kostenko explained this decision on Channel 24. He talked about why military finances were left unchanged, and deputies received an increase in expenses.

What exactly was changed in expenses

The increase concerns expenses for deputy activities in districts, and not their salaries. This is related to the so-called deputy fund.

“We are not talking about salaries, but about expenses that are used for deputy needs,” Kostenko noted.

These funds are not part of the deputies’ earnings and do not go to their personal accounts. However, at the same time, when the issue of increasing payments to the military remains unresolved, this decision has caused significant public discourse.

Why more funds were not allocated for the Armed Forces

Kostenko expressed disagreement with the budget, since it does not provide for an increase in salaries for military personnel. In his opinion, the military budget simply does not have the necessary resources for this, and in order to increase salaries, it is necessary to review funding in other areas.

“To increase the salaries of military personnel by at least 10,000 hryvnias, about 100 billion hryvnias will be needed. There are no such funds in the military budget,” he emphasized.

The only way is to redistribute funds from civilian expenses, which will automatically lead to a reduction in financial allocations for medicine, education and other necessary programs. Therefore, the issue of military payments is not only a political but also a budgetary challenge.

How to improve the motivation system

Kostenko also recalled a bill that he had previously registered and which proposes to change the salary accrual system for military personnel. This provides that the payment will depend on service experience and participation in combat operations.

“I proposed a scheme where the salary increase starts at 30,000 hryvnias per year of service, and 35,000 for three months in the combat zone. After two years of service, the salary will be 40,000, and then it will remain stable,” Kostenko explained.

According to him, there are cases when new conscripts receive more remuneration than those who have been fighting for a long time, which has a bad effect on the motivation of experienced fighters. So even without an immediate general salary increase, the system should be fair.

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