Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
According to Serhiy Marchenko, it is worth separating defense and budget expenditures.
According to Western media, in Brussels they refused to satisfy Ukraine's request for additional financial support this year until Kyiv implements the promised reforms. Against this backdrop, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko spoke about the budget situation as of today. He said that military and budgetary funding directions are separate issues.
“International financing for the needs of the state budget. These are funds we use to cover non-military expenditures. By the end of the year we urgently need to receive 29,5 billion dollars (more than 3 billion of which was received yesterday) from partners. And we will receive them if we fulfill all agreed obligations on our side. We will fulfill them jointly with the parliament and the government. Laws and resolutions. There will be no fiscal gap if we fully do our homework on our commitments,” Marchenko noted.
At the same time, he emphasized that money from the EU within the USL, intended for the purchase of weapons and drones, Ukraine will certainly receive. After all, there were no conditions attached to obtaining them. Today, according to the minister, 17 billion euros remain available until the end of the year. Marchenko assured that Ukraine has agreed with the European Commission to accelerate work toward the quickest possible approval of Kyiv’s requests.
“In August 2026 year the Ministry of Defense declared an additional (even after a full draw of funds within the USL) defense need amounting to 27 billion dollars. This week, together with representatives of the Ministry of Defense and the European Commission, we held meetings in Brussels where we discussed possible ways to close this need. We developed a plan and presented our view, but this does not mean that the problem does not exist,” the minister said.
He also added that 7 billion dollars of the additional defense spending needs will be covered by internal resources. For another roughly 12 billion dollars, they plan to find solutions through joint efforts.
“The remaining funds are a critical need, and we are working jointly with the Ministry of Defense to determine the source of coverage. The European Commission will not be able to cover it due to lack of appropriate instruments this year. We continue to work with partners around the clock to ensure all needs of the Ukrainian budget. We will inform about progress,” Marchenko summed up.
Kyiv openly speaks about the shortage of funds. On 18 September, President Volodymyr Zelensky called the budget deficit “astronomical.” In the same month, Brussels transferred 3,3 billion euros to missiles and drones. Money for the army is received regularly. The budgetary part depends on reforms, and due to delays with them Ukraine risks losing 4,48 billion euros of European aid.
Why the state budget-2026 ended up on the edge and what the Verkhovna Rada decides, explained by Anatyst from the Network for the Protection of National Interests “ANTS” Serhiy Shyshko in the ZN.UA article “The price of survival: how the hole in the State Budget-2026 will be closed.”
About why next year's budget is held together on other people's money because the state's own revenues are not enough even for defense, Ukraine’s budget editor for economics at ZN.UA Yuliya Samayeva discusses in the article “Budget-2027 — a colossus on non-existent money.”
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