Last year, the Verkhovna Rada returned UAH 85.1 billion of “military” and “security” personal income tax from local community budgets to the state budget. This is a tax on the income of military personnel, police officers, rank-and-file, and senior officers that they paid to the local budget.

The defense function belongs to the state, and it should have the appropriate resources to fulfill this function. As for local governments, after the return of the “military personal income tax” to the state budget, they de facto have resources exclusively for community development. In 2024, citizens picketed local governments demanding more funds to support the Armed Forces.

The purpose of the study is: to find out how local governments support the Defense Forces and eliminate the consequences of military aggression in communities at the expense of local budgets.

Data sample: local budget expenditures for 2022, 2023, and data on projected expenditures for the whole of 2024, and actual expenditures as of August-September 2024. The data is obtained by surveying territorial communities.

It is planned to survey all territorial communities except TOT and divide them into the following groups (village and settlement, city, and town councils with the status of a regional center).

! Note: if a local government that did not provide its data in time to the requests during the preparation of the survey wishes to do so, it can be sent to survey@cid.center

Data collection and processing method: all territorial communities, except TOT, received information requests with a request to fill in the table containing the following blocks in UAH for 2022-2024:

• Programs to promote territorial defense (data on the purchase of equipment for TD);
• Subvention to the state and regional budgets from the local budget to support the defense forces. This block is related to the redistribution of budgetary resources from the local level to the regional or state level to support the defense forces (SBU, AFU, TRO, GRU, NGU, border guards). However, this block does not include financial support for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Prosecutor’s Office, and other law enforcement agencies that are not involved in repelling Russian aggression and participation in hostilities. 
• Reconstruction of destroyed infrastructure in the community. This block asked for information to rebuild civilian infrastructure that was destroyed as a result of hostile aggression.
• Other expenditures related to eliminating the consequences of the Russian Federation’s armed aggression. This block requested information on other expenditures related to overcoming the consequences of Russian aggression to ensure the livelihoods of various population groups (IDPs, medicine, civil protection (shelters).

The research is conducted by “Center for Innovation Development” and “Holka” without any donor funding. The organizations jointly developed the research design and methodology. The Center for Innovation Development is responsible for data collection, processing, and communication with communities, while “Holka” is in charge of preparing the communication of the research findings.

The full methodology can be found in the attached file.

You can read the first and second parts of the research at the links below.

Rage of the communities. How much money did communities spend to help the front without a military personal income tax? (Updated)

he Center for Innovations Development, together with the Holka civic initiative, investigated how local authorities financed the needs of the frontline in the absence of “military” and “security” personal income tax, which communities did not receive from the state budget at the end of 2023 and in 2024, as well as how communities provided for reconstruction after enemy attacks.

Iryna Fedoriv, Kateryna Ivanchenko

23.01.2025

Money for the front. How have the priorities of local authorities changed over the three years of the great war? (Updated)

Last year, most communities in Ukraine helped the defense forces with the purchase of drones and electronic warfare devices. The 262 communities that provided data for the study spent UAH 1.6 billion in the first three quarters of last year.

Iryna Fedoriv, Olesya Malyavina

18.02.2025