FINANCING OF NATIONAL SECURITY AND DEFENSE SECTOR IN UKRAINE: CHALLENGES DURING THE WAR

Abstract

The article examines the pragmatic principles of financing the national security sector under martial law conditions in Ukraine. A retrospective analysis of the financing of individual components of the national security sector in the period up to 2022 was carried out. It is argued that for a number of reasons, the Ukrainian state did not consider a number of systemic challenges to national security that existed at that time. A number of explanations have been identified that determined such features in the state's budget policy. Among them, the most significant in terms of the level of influence were: first, the chronic budget deficit, which determined the absence of a sufficient amount of resources at the disposal of the state; secondly, excessive populism (especially in pre-election periods) in the form of a constant increase in social transfers against the background of a generally high level of poverty; thirdly, “politicization” of the financing of the national security sector in the conditions of acute political confrontations. Although, since 2014, there has been a significant increase in various threats to national security, the state's financial policy has only sometimes corresponded to their level. The question of the fiscal efficiency of the military levy was considered, the introduction of which resulted from the search for additional sources of filling the state budget in the conditions of the need to increase financing of the security sector. The beginning of open aggression against Ukraine determined the decisive role of security factors in the public interests of our state. In these conditions, disproportions in national security funding until 2022 were clearly manifested, and key priorities in this area were determined. It was emphasized that even considering the difficulties of the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine, the financial dimensions of national security should remain one of the key priorities. The full implementation of such a scenario will require a solid financial base. This problem will be one of the key ones, considering the complex social and economic challenges that Ukraine will face after the war.