UAH 14 billion will be allocated from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's budget of UAH 44.6 billion for the development of weapons for the army in 2015, and nearly UAH 2 billion will be spent on the training of Armed Forces personnel, Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak has said.

"In 2015, the Defense Ministry is to get UAH 44.6 billion [from the state budget], including UAH 4.4 billion worth of state guarantees. The increase in spending compared with 2014 [when the defense budget was UAH 27.3 billion] is UAH 17.3 billion, or 1.6 times," he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.

According to Poltorak, of this amount, UAH 28.7 billion will be used for the maintenance of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, UAH 14 billion for arms development, and UAH 1.9 billion for the training of army personnel.