Manufacturers are not being paid under the ePoints programme due to new budget approval requirements, —Fedirko

Manufacturers that supplied products under the ePoints programme have not received payment for supplies already delivered. According to Ihor Fedirko, Executive Director of the Ukrainian Council of Defence Industry, the debt owed to individual companies ranges from UAH 24 million to hundreds of millions of hryvnias.

According to Fedirko, the problem affects all supplies made under ePoints. The cause is changes to budget legislation, following which funding for this area must be approved by the Verkhovna Rada Committee and the Ministry of Defence’s Department for Capability Development and Defence Technologies.

“For small companies, delayed payments mean problems with paying salaries, purchasing components and producing the next batches of equipment. According to manufacturers, some companies are already experiencing difficulties paying their employees,” Fedirko claims.

Under the updated law on the State Budget for 2026, the distribution of military personal income tax remains unchanged: 60% goes to the Ministry of Defence, 30% to the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection, while the remaining 10% is automatically allocated directly to military units.

At the same time, the areas in which the Ministry of Defence uses its 60% share and the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection uses its 30% share must now be approved by the relevant Verkhovna Rada committee.

“The Committee approves not individual payments or supplies, but general areas for the use of funds. Since ePoints is financed from the Ministry of Defence’s share, the programme has also been brought under the new procedure,” the statement says.

According to Fedirko, manufacturers have been contacting the relevant institutions for around two months regarding payment of the outstanding debt for supplies already delivered, but the issue has still not been resolved.

The ePoints programme is a procurement mechanism for unmanned systems for the Defence Forces, under which military units can independently select the drones and other unmanned systems they need from designated suppliers.