Vitaliy Klitschko claims that the capital is supporting the military more than other cities in Ukraine. Is this true?
On Thursday, December 6, Ukraine will celebrate Armed Forces Day. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, this day has become a time to express gratitude to those who allow us to physically exist, with a significant portion of the country still living almost peaceful lives. However, are we truly as grateful to our defenders as they deserve?
In many cities across the country, residents are outraged that local authorities allocate funds to the Armed Forces based on a leftover principle, preferring to spend money on projects that are not timely during wartime. The "Money for the Armed Forces" campaigns are most often held in Kyiv – the wealthiest city in Ukraine, whose budget exceeds the budgets of other regional centers by dozens of times. Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko dismisses the outrage of Kyiv residents as speculation on a sensitive topic and claims that Kyiv is the leader in supporting the Armed Forces among all cities in the country.
Whether this corresponds to reality was investigated by Kashtan NEWS.
Official statements from the mayor
At the end of November, Klitschko stated that since the beginning of 2024, the capital has allocated over 9 billion UAH to support the military.
“At the next session, we still have the opportunity to allocate an additional 740 million UAH this year. In total, it will be almost 10 billion (last year it was 7.5 billion UAH),” he reported.
According to Klitschko, this money is intended for the purchase of drones, electronic warfare systems, vehicles, payments to military personnel and their families, housing provision, rehabilitation, etc.
“There is no need to speculate on the topic of assistance! Kyiv helps the military the most and will continue to do so next year. The total support for defenders and their families will be no less than this year!” the mayor promised.
0 Is it a lot or a little?
The amount of 9 billion UAH announced by Klitschko for assistance to the Armed Forces indeed appears substantial both in absolute and percentage terms. Overall, the capital's budget revenues for 2024 were projected at 72.6 billion UAH: thus, over eleven months of the year, Kyiv has allocated more than 12% of its annual revenues for military support.
However, according to information published on the Kyiv City Council's website, in the first nine months of this year, the capital's budget received 72.45 billion UAH in taxes, fees, and other payments, so the total annual income of Kyiv will clearly be higher. Therefore, what the final percentage of assistance to the Armed Forces will be, even considering the promised additional 740 million, remains unknown.
At the same time, it should be noted that the sum of nine billion does not seem excessive compared to expenditures on "peaceful" projects that the Kyiv authorities are implementing during the state of war. In particular, for the construction of two metro stations towards Vynohradar, Kyiv plans to spend almost 14 billion UAH over two and a half years. Additionally, only in 2024, the city authorities allocated 3 billion UAH to save the controversial KP "Spetszhytlofond", 2.5 billion for improving the situation in the equally controversial "Kyivmiskbud", and another 1.5 billion for the reorganization of the notoriously infamous "Kyivvodokanal".
1 It is worth remembering that all four of these entities are burdened with criminal proceedings regarding possible unlawful expenditures of budget funds due to intentional actions or negligence by their leadership. Thus, the amount allocated this year by Kyiv for the Armed Forces is comparable to the amount that had to be spent on compensation for funds embezzled by city officials.
Leader or not?
It is also unclear what data Vitaliy Klitschko relied on when stating that Kyiv ranks first among Ukrainian cities in military support. If we consider the experience of the previous year, indeed, at that time, the capital was a leader in absolute numbers: according to calculations by Transparency International Ukraine analyst Yaroslav Pylypenko, the most significant support for the army in 2023 came from Kyiv (7.5 billion), Dnipro (2 billion UAH), Odesa (1.1 billion UAH), and Lviv (1 billion UAH).
However, as the expert notes, in percentage terms, the leader was not the capital but the Sumy City Council: Sumy, whose annual budget revenues are tens of times lower than Kyiv's, allocated 10.1% of its budget expenditures to support the Armed Forces. As for the capital, in the percentage ranking, it only took third place (9%), falling behind Dnipro (9.2%).
What to expect next year
In the draft of the capital budget for 2025, published on the Kyiv City Council's website, the revenues for the next year are planned at 90.7 billion UAH, while expenditures are set at 90 billion UAH. How much of these 90 billion will go to support the Armed Forces is still unknown. There is no separate figure for the main military support program "Defender of Kyiv" in the draft budget for 2025. However, as promised by Klitschko, he intends to propose an amendment to the project that will allocate 2.8 billion UAH for this program.
Why the project developer, represented by the Department of Finance of the Kyiv City State Administration, which is directly subordinate to the mayor, did not include such an important and resonating expenditure item in the budget remains a mystery. In any case, this strange oversight allowed Klitschko to present this initiative in the information space under his name.
However, this is not the only strange thing related to the "Defender of Kyiv" and the mayor's generous promise. As Klitschko publicly stated, “for 2024 (year – ed.) this program initially had almost three times less allocated.”
2 However, this contradicts data on the state of this year's budget execution, indicated in the draft budget for the upcoming year: the authors of the project state that for the implementation of the "Defender of Kyiv" program “in the budget of the city of Kyiv for 2024, funds of 5,272,707.0 thousand UAH are provided, of which general fund expenditures are 2,131,930.1 thousand UAH, and special fund expenditures are 3,140,777.7 thousand UAH”. How 5.2 billion UAH can be “almost three times less” than the 2.8 billion promised by Klitschko also remains a mystery.
In any case, today, December 5, an extraordinary plenary session of the Kyiv City Council will take place, where we may hear the resolution of this arithmetic mystery. Judging by the date, the unscheduled gathering of deputies is likely dedicated to the upcoming Armed Forces Day, so new details may be revealed to the public.
Konstantin MYKHAILENKO