Ukraine Seeks Increase to Military Spending Budget

Ukraine’s Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko will ask the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, to review this year’s spending in the light of the larger defensive needs of the armed forces.

Marchenko announced this during a parliamentary committee briefing on Thursday, June 5, Interfax Ukraine reported. 

“It’s impossible to fully predict the situation during a full-scale war and the needs of the military, we’ll soon ask you to revise the budget…” Marchenko said. “It’s clear that the current funds for the military are not enough for various reasons.”

According to him, the defense minister Rustem Umerov has already submitted a request to review the state budget. 

The decision is not a mistake in planning, but rather a necessity driven by changes in technology, the supply of weapons from key partners, and escalating activity on the battlefield, Marchenko said. 

“If you compare the numbers in the budget proposal from [last] September to the final approved version, they match last year’s. But as you know, this situation can’t be forecasted in a straight line. It’s unpredictable and calls for some difficult, sometimes unconventional decisions,” he added.

Marchenko didn’t specify what changes to the budget are being considered, the Interfax report said.

Russia’s war against Ukraine places strains on the budget

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Ukraine spent almost $6 billion more on defense against Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2025 than in 2024 – the need to allocate more to fight against Russia keeps growing to protect the war-torn country, straining the budget despite increasing revenue, Kyiv Post previously wrote.

In the first quarter of 2025, Ukraine spent $20.8 billion on defense, or about 75% of the total state budget expenditure of $27.9 billion, the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) Institute analytic center estimated.

Marchenko previously proposed a plan for the West to help finance the Ukrainian military during Wednesday’s meeting with G7 finance representatives, aiming to ease the significant weight that spending on the defense against Russia’s invasion has imposed. 

The plan involves integration of Ukraine’s military potential into the European security system, to also protect Europe from future Russian aggression. The solution will also help decrease Ukraine’s current fiscal deficit of 20% GDP, after Russia’s invasion created a huge spike in spending on defense.