Kherson Region Allocates ₴528M for Defense in 2025 Amid Budget Cuts

In 2025, more than UAH 528 million is planned to be allocated for the defense of Kherson region. Of this amount, 128.7 million will be provided from the regional budget, and 400 million from other local budgets.

This was reported by the Kherson Regional Military Administration.

Last year, 1 million hryvnias were allocated from the regional budget for the construction of fortifications, of which 907 thousand were spent. In addition, more than 2 billion hryvnias were allocated from the state budget for these activities, of which 1.9 billion was spent.

Despite the fact that the budget of the Kherson region for 2025 is 1.5 billion hryvnias, it is 5-6 times less than before the full-scale Russian invasion. At the same time, about 500 million hryvnias are allocated from this budget to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

TheCenter for Public Investigations analyzed procurements without the use of the Prozorro electronic system and identified the most expensive ones in Kherson region. According to the publication, 1,756 contracts worth 3.8 billion hryvnias were concluded in Kherson region without Prozorro. The largest contracts - worth UAH 2.1 billion - were signed by the Department of Civil Protection and Defense of the Kherson Regional State Administration. They all relate to fortifications and fortifications, and information about most of these contracts is classified.

However, the Center for Public Investigations managed to find out that among the contractors were Avtomagistral-Pivden and Rostdorstroy. The former signed at least 8 contracts worth UAH 9.6 million, while the latter signed 5 contracts worth UAH 8.5 million.

Mykolaivbudmekhanizatsiya ALC (MBM) was also awarded contracts for the installation of a system of non-explosive barriers worth UAH 83.6 million. The company has been operating in the market since 1993 and is owned by Hanna, Vitalii and Oleksandr Zubky. In total, this company received public contracts worth UAH 242.8 million.

Андрій Колісніченко