OREANDA-NEWS. President Petro Poroshenko emphasizes that Ukraine keeps on enhancing its defense capacity, strengthening the Armed Forces and equipping its troops with new armament.

“We, Ukrainians, did not let the rapacious plans of the country-aggressor come true. We did not and do not wage wars of conquest. For centuries, we have not been in the role of the aggressor and have never encroached on someone else’s property. But we will not surrender what is ours. Thank God, we now have means to rebuff the uninvited guests. Those who come to us sword in hand, by the sword shall perish… And by the shield of our Armed Forces,” Petro Poroshenko said at the ceremony of taking oath by students of Ivan Bohun Military Lyceum of Kyiv on the Day of Defender of Ukraine.

The Head of State noted that “remarkable improvement in quality of the AFU has become possible due to the powerful solidarity of Ukrainians”.

“Due to courage and heroism of soldiers, officers and volunteers. Due to the power of will and spirit, patriotism of Ukrainian mothers. Due to the labor feat of designers, engineers and workers of our defense industry,” he said.

According to the President, the ongoing Russian aggression and military threat from the east, obvious for a long historical perspective, are the determining factors of our security policy and military planning.

“If we want to survive as nation, as people, as state, we must spend on the Armed Forces and security at least 5% of GDP - no matter how burdensome and hard it is for the budget, economy and social sphere,” Petro Poroshenko stressed.

According to him, if you look at these costs in the scale of world prices for weapons and equipment, if you compare our military budget to similar expenditures in other countries, it is obvious that we operate in conditions of limited and very humble financial resources. The President gave an example of a dispute between two European countries on a contract for the supply of helicopters. The cost of fifty helicopters is more than 3 billion euros. “Truth be told, we need dozens or even hundreds of such machines. But our annual military budget is less than 60% of that sum. Next year it will equal 64 billion hryvnias,” he said.

At the same time, the President stressed that we used the budget as efficiently as possible strengthening the country's defense day by day.

“Only this year the Armed Forces received about 2 thousand pieces of weapons and military equipment. Scientists, designers and managers of defense enterprises have an important task to develop and produce new missile weapons, cruise missile systems, artillery systems, high-precision munition, strike-type UAVs, space exploration, electronic warfare and counter-battery means,” the President said.