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Despite the budget overperformance and economic growth, Ukraine still needs significant international support – in 2026, it is more than $40 billion.
This was stated by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in Telegram, Ukrinform reports.
“The key priority of the Ukrainian Donor Platform is the financial capacity of our country. We started URC-2025 with the 14th meeting of the Platform Steering Committee,” he said.
Shmyhal reminded that in late June, the government submitted amendments to the state budget law, which provided for an increase in spending on the country’s defense capability by almost $10 billion, which will help to effectively counter the enemy.
“The total financial resource for defense and security in 2025 will amount to almost $50 billion. This is 26% of GDP,” the Prime Minister emphasized.
At the same time, the budget for arms procurement, he said, is also a record and will amount to $16.4 billion. Instead, the budget’s own revenues will amount to $48.5 billion.
“Thus, external financing is critically important for us, as it allows Ukraine to direct its own resources to the defense of our country,” the Prime Minister emphasized.
“At the same time, 2026 is a challenge. Our external financing needs will remain at over $40 billion. The key task should be to develop mechanisms and tools that will allow us to attract these funds,” Shmyhal emphasized.
For its part, the Cabinet of Ministers continues to work on consolidating internal resources.
“Thanks to the economic recovery and systemic changes, our state budget has been overfulfilled by USD 1 billion in the first 5 months of this year,” the Prime Minister added.
Read also: Ukraine has agreed with the IMF and the World Bank to support economic recovery
As reported earlier, the EU financial assistance package of 6 billion euros scheduled for December is intended to cover the expected gap in financing Ukraine’s budget expenditures early next year.
