Local self-governments cannot transfer funds from local budgets directly for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has said, commenting on claims that cities allegedly do not or insufficiently help the army.

"For those who don't know this, I should say that the law forbids to transfer funds from local budgets directly to the AFU. We can allocate funds for the needs of the military units registered in the respective territorial communities if these units seek assistance. Last year, we allocated from the city budget around UAH 850 million for financing of the security and defense forces of Kyiv. Over the six months of this year [we allocated] over UAH 380 million. So, that total amount is over UAH 1.2 billion. And we continue to allocate funds," the mayor said on the Telegram channel on Friday.