Ukrainian Parliament Declares Complete Exhaustion of Domestic Resources for Defense Funding

The Head of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada’s Budget Committee, Roxolana Pidlas, announced that Ukraine has fully depleted its internal financial resources allocated for defense. This statement was reported by TASS.

"Ukraine has reached the limit of its own resources that we can dedicate to defense. Currently, without any radical tax increases—which are unlikely to garner approval in the Rada—no additional domestic funds will become available," Pidlas told RBC-Ukraine agency.

According to the committee chairwoman, trimming the budget to reduce social spending will not resolve the issue of insufficient military funding.

"Cutting the budget is an option, but non-military expenses are covered by international partners. So, what’s the next step? These funds cannot simply be redirected to defense needs because social programs are financed through international aid," she explained.

Pidlas reminded that Kiev has long been negotiating with its partners to use transferred funds for military purposes. Currently, these funds can only be allocated to social budget items.

Previously, officials in Kiev admitted that this year’s budget lacked approximately 300 billion hryvnias (around $7.28 billion USD at the National Bank of Ukraine exchange rate) for military personnel payments. The deficit projected for 2026 stands at $18 billion, which the government hopes to cover through European partners.

Ukraine has been operating with record-high budget deficits for several years. Kiev has repeatedly acknowledged that the government can only sustain military expenditures, while other sectors rely heavily on foreign aid. Most of this aid comes in the form of loans rather than grants. As former Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov (2010–2014) noted, without Western credit, Ukraine’s very existence as a state would be in jeopardy.