Ruling party chair explains why corona relief money spent on road construction

Chairman of the Servant of the People faction in Ukraine's parliament David Arakhamia has elaborated on a reason the government has been spending money from the coronavirus relief fund on road construction across the country.

This is an "investment in ourselves," Arakhamia told Ukraine 24 TV Channel on August 29.

"If we hadn't spent it, we would've failed to build roads with further needing to borrow money to this end. That is, we would still need to lend the money, while allocating the funds for roads rather than for tackling coronavirus," he said.

Read alsoCOVID-19 in Ukraine: Gov't introduces new quarantine zonesArakhamia added that "money must work" in Ukraine.

"Each hryvnia [Ukraine's national currency] that is invested in roads brings six hryvnias to the [national] budget within four years. This is an investment in ourselves. We are approaching [the construction of] 4,200 km [of roads] this year, which is a historic record, while the program envisages the construction of 20,000 km in five years," he said.

Road repairs and construction in Ukraine: in brief

• Ukraine is expected to spend over UAH 100 billion (US$3.6 billion) on roads this year.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's Office presented a project for the construction of a new bypass road around the capital city of Kyiv.