KYIV. Sept 6 (Interfax) - Kyiv cannot afford to finance the Ukrainian army at a level higher than 3% of Ukraine's gross domestic product for the time being, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said.
"Almost 3% of GDP spent on national defense, this is too much against the barely 1% that the [Ukrainian] governments neglected not so long ago, in the mid-2000s. But this is too little for a country that is de facto at war. But we cannot afford to spend more and regrettably, it is true. The defense burden is already too big for the budget and the social sphere," Poroshenko said in his annual address to the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv on Tuesday.