Ministry of Defense requested another 1.1 trillion UAH, but government estimates real need much lower
The Ministry of Defense estimated the additional funding need until the end of 2026 at 1.1 trillion UAH. At the same time, the government's financial block considers a significantly smaller amount to be more realistic - about 326 billion UAH.
This is reported by "Ekonomichna Pravda" citing participants of meetings on defense financing.
According to the publication, the new Minister of Defense Yevhenii Khmara at one of the meetings with the government's financial block named the additional need of his department until the end of the year at the level of 1.1 trillion UAH.
At the same time, an EP source estimates the "more realistic" additional need of the Ministry of Defense at 326 billion UAH. Of this amount, about 90 billion UAH account for new additional payments to military personnel introduced under the previous leadership of the department. The total need of all Defense Forces, including the National Guard, the SBU, and the GUR, may reach 600 billion UAH.
By December planned expenditures sharply decrease
The problem is exacerbated by the structure of the current budget schedule of the Ministry of Defense. According to the Center for Public Finance Analysis of the Kyiv School of Economics, in August 193 billion UAH were planned to be spent on the department's needs, while in December - only 36.8 billion UAH.
Thus, the planned budget resource decreases by more than five times. Analysts estimate the possible need to amend the state budget by 400-450 billion UAH, but sources of such financing are not yet determined.
The government is already preparing to revise the 2026 budget and increase defense expenditures by at least 300 billion UAH. At the same time, the final volume of additional needs of all security agencies is still being formed.
The main problem is financing the monetary support of the military. Receiving funds under the European program Ukraine Support Loan allowed partially covering the costs of arms procurement, but almost did not solve the issue of payments to personnel.
