Ukraine to increase military expenditure fivefold by 2020 – Kiev

(Interfax – September 29, 2014) The reform program Strategy 2020 provides that Ukraine should become “a military state,” increasing its military expenditures from 1 percent of the GDP to 5 percent, Dmytro Shimkiv, deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, said.

“We are operating under the assumption that Ukraine should become a military state,” he said at a public debate on Strategy 2020 in Kiev on Monday.

The reform program envisions an increase of military funding from 1 percent of the GDP in 2014 to 5 percent in 2020.

The reforms also envision an increase in the number of servicemen in Ukraine from 2.8 people to 7 people per 1,000 people, he said.

Shimkiv also said the defense and national security reform is a key reform envisioned by the program Strategy 2020.