Public finances under martial law
Authors:   Accounting Chamber of Ukraine, RADIONOV Yurii 
Published: November 2022

Introduction. With the beginning of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, a number of important socio-economic issues moved to another level, instead, the efforts of state authorities to solve the primary tasks have gained the growth: increasing budget revenues for the needs of the army, solving humanitarian issues, ensuring the stability of the financial system, maintaining the general economic situation in a stable state. In this connection, the issues of the role and importance of state finances in the conditions of martial law are brought up to date. Problem Statement. Ukraine is under martial law for the first time in more than half a century. Therefore, a significant range of issues is understudied, in particular in the aspect of public finance management. Purpose. The goal is to identify the peculiarities of state finance management in the conditions of martial law. Methods. General scientific and special methods are used: analysis, synthesis, grouping, description, modeling, comparison, theoretical generalization and abstract-logical. Results. In the conditions of the war, the question of the effectiveness of the management of state finances, in particular their components: revenues and expenditures of the budget, is becoming actualized. The volumes of the latter depend on the capacity of the country's fiscal space, as well as the effectiveness of the tax system. The stability of the budget system and each budget in particular (state and local) is an important element of ensuring the stability of the entire financial system of the country. It was emphasized that an important direction of ensuring macro-financial stability should be the close interaction of the National Bank of Ukraine and the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine in matters of control over the situation and its timely, justified regulation. International support and external sources of financing strengthened the sustainability of public finances. Increased mobilization of budget revenues is a forced step and at the same time a prerequisite not only for high-quality implementation of budgets at all levels, meeting the needs of the country's defense, maintaining macro-financial stability, but also a strong basis for the country's recovery. The mechanism for determining losses and damages caused by Russian aggression, introduced by the government, is analyzed. The author's definition of the term “war damage” is proposed. Conclusions. In the conditions of open aggression, state authorities rallied primarily around the President of Ukraine and his Office with the aim of preventing the collapse of the national economy, maintaining the stability of state finances, and the stability of the financial system. At the same time, the mechanism for economic recovery, revitalization of business activity, reconstruction of destroyed infrastructure, housing stock, etc. was launched. The implemented mechanism for determining losses and damages caused by Russian aggression needs some adjustment in order to develop an effective toolkit that will help in the future reduce the pressure on public finances for the reconstruction of the country, to use a sound methodology as an evidence base in legal proceedings and lawsuits against Russia to obtain reparations for the damage and losses caused.