MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/. After the hostilities in Ukraine are over, Kiev will spend substantial sums on procuring new weapons and developing its own defense industry, Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on finances, taxes, and customs policy Daniil Getmantsev said.
"We must keep investing large sums for a long time. <…> And we will require far more weapons than what we are supposed to or expect to receive from our allies shortly," he said in an interview with the Obozrevatel website.
He noted that, in 2023, Ukraine’s military expenses stood at 40.5% of GDP and observed that they may decrease after the conflict is over, but "no sharp reduction will happen in the foreseeable future." According to the committee head, the national 2025 budget provides for about $52 billion for military expenses, one third of them (approximately $17.2 billion) allocated for procurement of weapons and military vehicles.
According to Getmantsev, Ukraine enters the "most extensive" stage of transition from Soviet weapons to its own and Western equipment in its modern history. He added that Kiev expects to spend heavily on the development of its own military-industrial complex and procurement of foreign-made vehicles, which could not be produced in Ukraine in the near future. According to the head of the parliamentary committee, Kiev hopes for continued support from Western partners, deployment of joint production, inclusion of its enterprises into production chains, and handover of military technologies.
He added that funding of the basic military training program will also become a major expense as well. The bill on the introduction of this program was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada in January.
Moscow has repeatedly said that the special military operation in Ukraine will stop after all its goals are achieved. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that these goals could be achieved either militarily or via negotiations. These goals were named by Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier, including the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, its neutral status, and the recognition of the reality on the ground.