Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said that the discussion on mobilisation is ongoing and the ministry has many questions about its timing, plans and the projected number of people.
"I wouldn't jump ahead yet, but let the General Staff, together with the Ministry of Defence, find approaches to this issue and propose solutions, as they see it, as they see optimisation of existing expenditures, because we have exhausted our internal potential to finance military needs," he said in an interview with Forbes Ukraine.
According to him, it will not be possible to artificially increase spending because there is simply no money.
"If we need to find them, we need to understand the timeframe - whether we need to find them today or in March-April-May, or perhaps the second half of the year. That is, I need to see a picture as a minister, and then we can talk about meeting these needs," he said.
He does not rule out that it will be necessary to look for additional revenues and additional domestic sources of financing.
"But it's too early to talk about the figures, because the responsible agencies do not have a clear understanding of the needs," he explained.
Marchenko said that the Ministry of Finance has no information on what needs will need to be met.
"We have not received such a request from the Ministry of Defence, and we do not work directly with the General Staff," the minister said.
He added that it is the Ministry of Defence that calculates the needs of the Armed Forces, identifies possible sources of optimisation of existing needs and comes up with a joint decision with the Ministry of Finance.
"We have not yet started this exercise, although I understand that we may do so in the near future," Marchenko said.
Answering a question about President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's statements that mobilisation would cost Ukraine an additional UAH 500 billion, Marchenko added that such calculations are "quite correct".