The mayor of Dnipro told why the city could not buy pickup trucks for the front.
resources for the army, thereby depriving the municipal authorities of the opportunity to materially assist the Armed Forces and TerO. Dnipro Mayor Boris Filatov told in an interview with Inna Vedernikova that Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has been ignoring requests from local self-government representatives to allow them to spend blocked money on bulletproof vests, thermal imaging cameras, trucks, etc. for two months.< /strong>
“We are hindered by the Prime Minister, who torpedoes any initiatives of local self-government related to the purchase of equipment for the needs of not only TRO, but also the Armed Forces. The very first example is issues related to prepayment. To date, local self-government is legally limited by the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers to make advance payments for the purchase of any resources. We pay only after the product has been delivered. However, foreign suppliers do not work without prepayment. In this regard, we have repeatedly appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers with a request to change the regulatory framework and to give us the opportunity to directly and without obstacles make purchases for the army and the Ministry of Defense. Five meetings of the Cabinet of Ministers have already passed since our appeal, but this issue is and was not brought up for discussion by the government,” the mayor said.
He noted that despite this, each city council has adopted a program for financing the TP and allocates money for it from the budget and conducts purchases.
>
“Although we demanded earlier to finance the army and TRO from the state budget, the whole paradox is that there is money at the local level right now. Because with its resolution No. 590, the government completely prohibited any capital repairs and reconstruction during the period of military operations. Today we can only do some current repairs and manipulations. Accordingly, now I am sitting on five hundred million hryvnias, which I could spend on the purchase of materials and equipment for the Armed Forces. But Shmyhal won't let me do that,” Filatov was indignant.
The community builds various fortifications and finances it from the budget. But when it comes to direct procurement, problems arise. He added that although Denis Shmyhal considers him the initiator of the conflict, he himself considers himself only its catalyst.
“Now the whole country is buying pickup trucks for the Armed Forces. I sent my deputy to the military warehouses in Europe, and he found not just pickup trucks, but thousands of trucks that the front needed. Not dozens, not hundreds, but thousands! They are used, but the price is acceptable — from five to fifteen thousand euros. Moreover, they come with zippers, spare boxes, rubber, etc. In conclusion, for your understanding, we bought these trucks for one and a half million euros with private money and are now transporting them. Because when I showed them to my fellow mayors, they were inspired and wanted to rush to buy a few hundred for the needs of our army,” Filatov told about a specific example, adding that the prime minister forbade Dnipro to make prepayments for cars.
< p>“Neither with regard to these pickups, nor with regard to thermal imagers, drones, devices for water purification, any other resources needed by the front. That is why all goods come to us here from the West either through volunteers or through the hands of “Ukrspecexport” and others. And communities are sitting on money and cannot spend it. Because the prime minister has his position on this,” added the mayor of Dnipro.
He noted that the Association of Cities of Ukraine (ASU) had already approached the Minister of Defense on this matter, and Oleksiy Reznikov two months ago promised to submit this issue for discussion by the government, but the prime minister did not include the corresponding draft decision in the agenda.
“Since that time, five meetings of the Cabinet of Ministers have already passed, and the prime minister is taking a break. At the same time, he does not answer our calls, does not notice the messages of the mayors. And his assistants constantly tell us that something needs to be finalized. And this is despite the fact that this issue has already been discussed twice at the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities under the President, and the government has received instructions on this matter.It has come to the point that the ASU has already officially addressed the Prime Minister and asked to provide the minutes of the Cabinet of Ministers' meetings, where there is a justification, why an important issue for the army is not on the agenda. However, the prime minister covered up the war and refused, calling the transcript “a document for official use”, Filatov said.
Read also: Mayors of cities accused Prime Minister Shmyhal of sabotage and damage It should be noted that the budget code and the law on national resistance oblige local self-government bodies to finance the army. Since the 2022 defense budget was zero for equipment, and with the army's armament tight, much of the organization of the defense fell on the shoulders of the soldiers themselves, their families, volunteers, and the Armed Forces. The mayors initially asked the central government to take the honorable mission of financing the army and military personnel from the state budget. But the war turned out to be so extraordinary and critical that today every community, literally fighting for its life, is interested in helping the Armed Forces.
Read more materials of Inna Vedernykova < span> by link.
