Floods in western Ukraine: Tymoshenko demands changes to state budget

The leader of the Batkivshchyna faction in the Verkhovna Rada, Yulia Tymoshenko, said this at a meeting of the parliament's conciliation council on Tuesday, June 30, according to an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"I was convinced that the Verkhovna Rada, at the beginning of its work, will be charged with adopting a bill on amendments to the country's budget so as to protect the western regions from floods, to pay people aid. To be honest, I'm just in a state of shock, because the government has not tabled in parliament any document over the past few days," Tymoshenko said.

At the same time, she said the situation in western Ukraine was a national disaster as 700 kilometers of roads and about 360 bridges had been destroyed and damaged, and 4,500 houses had been flooded.

"We need to take a break immediately, invite the government, and immediately demand that they make changes to the budget," the politician added.

Earlier, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Dmytro Razumkov said at a meeting of the conciliation council that the parliament was ready to work in an intensified mode if it is necessary to help overcome the consequences of floods in western Ukraine. He added that the Verkhovna Rada and concerned committees we ready, among other things, to make changes to the budget if need be.

Ukraine's western regions were hit by large-scale floods due to heavy rain. Three people were killed in the Carpathians as a result of the disaster, and one more went missing.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky paid a working visit to Ivano-Frankivsk region on June 25 to inspect the aftermath of the floods and review an emergency response.

The government allocated almost UAH 700 million for priority steps to tackle the consequences of floods in western Ukraine.

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