Ukraine is ready to spend nearly US$1 billion on the state defense order in 2020 / Photo from Ukroboronprom
Nearly US$1 billion is to be allocated for financing the state defense order in 2020.
Ukrainian ministries have failed to fulfill the state defense order for the current year and tasks to reform the country's military-industrial complex.
Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Oleksiy Danilov announced this during an interdepartmental meeting on the development of the defense industry and the implementation of the state defense order to meet the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2020, the NSDC's press service reported.
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Participants in the meeting discussed, among other issues, how the NSDC's decision dated February 18, 2020, on key indicators of the state defense order for 2020 and 2021, 2022, which was enacted by presidential decree No. 59 dated February 27, 2020, had been implemented in terms of reform and the development of the defense industry. They also discussed challenges and proposed solutions.
Danilov drew attention to the unacceptably low level of implementation by the central executive authorities of the presidential decree, which provides for priority measures, in particular, to reform the defense industry.
In particular, he said, the Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine and the Defense Ministry of Ukraine have failed to fulfill the state defense order for the current year.
He stressed the need to take urgent measures to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the work of the Ministry of Strategic Industries of Ukraine.
"The situation is extremely tense over the COVID-19 epidemic, but security and defense sector actors must fulfill their assigned tasks in full," Danilov said. "The Council's decision of February 18 this year must be implemented."
In this context, he called for a state-oriented approach to solving problematic issues and noted the need to improve discipline in performance.
The Ministry for Development of Economy and the Defense Ministry were instructed to take measures within two weeks to ensure the efficient use of state budget funds in line with the made decisions.
The Ministry of Strategic Industry, in accordance with the decisions of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, was tasked to intensify work on the reform of the defense industry, modernization, and the achievement of NATO standards.
The meeting was attended by Defense Minister Andriy Taran, Chairman of the parliament's committee on national security, defense and intelligence Oleksandr Zavitnevych, First Deputy Minister of Finance Denis Ulyutin, First Deputy Minister for Strategic Industries Valeriy Ivashchenko, Minister for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture Ihor Petrashko, First Deputy Secretaries of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Mykhailo Koval and Ruslan Demchenko, Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Serhiy Demedyuk.