President: I would really like to see an increase in military aid
Kyiv • UNN
President Zelenskyy stated the need to increase military assistance from partners. He also emphasized the importance of developing domestic arms production and finding funds for it.
The portions of military aid received from partners are small. We would like to see an increase in aid. This was stated by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the forum "Ukraine 2024. Independence" forum, UNN correspondent reports.
Today, those portions are small, because you can see the appetite of this war, and so we really want to increase the revenues. Nobody insists on some other things, such as congressional votes and agreements, there is enough money to keep these packages coming and our country strong, but it is slow
He noted that sometimes it is also related to production.
It's one thing to vote, it's another to find out what's there, what's left... In any case, we are working on it. There are several initiatives with Europe, in addition to the Czech one, there is a Danish one, and we have contacts with Poland and other countries. We are waiting for these packages as well. And there is definitely, in my opinion, a very important moment at which we have started to move forward, but if we cannot keep this pace, Russia will catch up and it will be a problem - this is domestic production. Drones, artillery. Missiles are a costly program and we need to invest in it. We don't have money for this in our budget today
The President also told where the funds are being sought for this purpose.
"Where to find the money. We have personal agreements with the Nordic countries, with our Baltic friends, who really support our domestic production... So I am counting on this money. Our government officials have been tasked with this, and in my office we are all looking for this money, revenues, as a team. They will definitely increase the amount of our domestic production," Zelensky said.
Addendum
Shmyhal reported that Ukraine now has a critical need to raise additional funds for defense, for defense capability.
