A greater part of about $1.5 billion or UAH 29.7 billion in a special confiscation returned by the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine (PGO) to the state budget in 2017, was spent on defense needs, primarily on the purchase of new missile systems for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has said.

While delivering a report on the results of the special confiscation in 2017 at a meeting of the parliamentary committee on national security and defense on Wednesday, January 17, Lutsenko said: "I can say, observing secrecy, that the Defense Ministry received most of this money. When we read in the media that hundreds of domestically-produced missile systems were finally supplied to the army, then these are these funds."

He considered it incorrect to specify the volumes and specifications of the missile armament delivered to the Armed Forces, stressing that the army was waiting for precisely this equipment.

According to Lutsenko, of the UAH 29.7 billion transferred to the State Treasury Service accounts in April 2017, UAH 700 million was allocated for the defense needs of the state, including to the State Border Service. In particular, UAH 300 million was allocated for the development of the state border and UAH 400 million for the creation of the biometric identification system.

In addition, according to Lutsenko, UAH 900 million from the special confiscation funds was sent to the National Guard for the purchase of armored vehicles in 2017. Another UAH 1.48 billion from these funds was allocated to the National Police to strengthen the activities of the patrol service, he said.