KIEV, November 5 (RIA Novosti) — Ukraine is planning to increase its military spending in 2015 up to 3 percent of the country's gross domestic product, President Petro Poroshenko's press service said late on Tuesday.
The announcement cited the president's decree that enforced the September 12 decision of the Ukrainian Security Council. The plan aims at bolstering Ukraine's defenses. Poroshenko also said earlier the country's economy would be converted to meet its military objectives.
"With regard to financial support of the security and defense sector, the government has been tasked specifically with finalizing a draft state budget for Ukraine for the year 2015 that will prioritize the funding of defense programs. For instance, it stipulates that national security needs will be funded at a level of no less than 3 percent of the GDP," the statement said.
Kiev said it was also going to sign security agreements with a number of unspecified countries to protect Ukraine's sovereignty, according to the press service.
"The Cabinet of Ministers has also been given a month's time to thrash out an optimal model to guarantee Ukraine's security, including multilateral or bilateral international agreements between Ukraine and other countries to obtain security safeguards for Ukraine in order to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity," it said.
Following the crisis in eastern Ukraine, the government in Kiev has been pouring money into its military industry and reaching out for international support of its actions. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said earlier the government was going to shore up more than $76 million in armaments procurement and maintenance programs.
