Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Tymoshenko has said that the budget funds allocated for the fight against COVID-19 were not sent on construction.

"First, money for roads is money from the Road Fund. Second, this is credit money, when Ukravtodor concludes loan contracts with international institutions. Third, this is money that was won in the Stockholm arbitration. Yes, indeed, some of them were sent to the general fund, but no one took them away from the fight against coronavirus! This is money that was planned for the roads! Coronavirus money was planned separately, and some of it has not been spent so far," he said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.

He also said that this happened for various reasons. "Somewhere there is no need for this, somewhere the tender was not held, somewhere there really is no need to spend them on these items. The Cabinet of Ministers is transferring them to other positions. You must understand that this is budget money. We took it from one pocket and put it in another. It's still a process that takes several weeks," Tymoshenko said.

The deputy head of the Office of the President also said that on November 17, the Verkhovna Rada sent an additional UAH 10 billion to the fund to fight coronavirus to increase the stock to "calm everyone."

"That is, all these insinuations about the fact that the money was sent to the roads, but they are not in the coronavirus fund, is not true. The money is still there," he said.