Economy

Rada committee's head: No clear permission to finance army at expense of $50 bln in G7 statement

The declaration of the Big Seven (G7) countries on support for the restoration and reconstruction of Ukraine provides for partial use of the announced $50 billion for military support of Ukraine, but this is not direct evidence of the possibility of direct financing from these defense funds, Head of the Verkhovna Rada committee's budget Roksolana Pidlasa said.

"This statement of the Big Seven only talks about ERA [Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration Loans] that these funds can be partially used for military support of Ukraine, but this does not mean at all that this money will go to the budget of Ukraine, and we will be able to pay salaries to servicemen and buy military uniforms or ammunition with them," she told Interfax-Ukraine.

As an example, the committee's head cited the use of income from frozen Russian assets by the European Union for military aid to Ukraine. "They have a separate tool for this, called the Peace Facility. After permission to use income from Russian assets in February, they send 90% of this income to this Peace Facility, and 10% to the Ukraine Facility. But this same Peace Facility does not give money to the budget of Ukraine," Pidlasa said.

"I don't know how it is now, but at first there were many statements that, for example, France and Germany insist that from this Peace Facility the European Commission should place orders from manufacturers within the EU for the purchase of weapons, ammunition and transfer it to Ukraine in kind," the parliamentary budget committee's head said.

Pidlasa said she could not provide precise information about the future of the issue of Ukraine using the $50 billion gratuitous loan provided from the income from the immobilized Russian assets for defense spending, since the details of this decision are being negotiated directly between European and American leaders.

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