On December 30, Ukrainian parliamentarian Yaroslav Zheleznyak announced his 2025 financial report, confirming that the country had been cut in aid worth more than 4.2 billion USD from Western partners.
According to Mr. Zheleznyak, the direct reason is that the Ukrainian government has not met the "structural standards" - a term referring to legal conditions and administrative reforms set by the European Union (EU) for financial disbursement.
Detailed reports show that revenue loss occurs continuously quarterly due to delays in legislative work.
In the first quarter, Ukraine lost about 350 million USD because it did not meet one target. By the second quarter, the situation did not improve as the government continued to miss two other conditions, leading to the retention of an additional 820 million USD. In the third quarter, this country continued to lose 350 million USD.
However, the heaviest damage fell in the fourth quarter, a period that MP Zheleznyak called a "complete failure" when Ukraine lost a record amount of up to 2.7 billion USD.
To clarify the scale of this damage, Mr. Zheleznyak compared the amount of money lost in 2025 to more than half of the total support package that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) committed to Ukraine for 4 years. This amount is part of the EU's "Ukraine Facility" program with a total value of about 59 billion USD, expected to be implemented by 2027.
The fund's goal is to support Ukraine in implementing the necessary reforms to join the EU, but comes with a strict monitoring mechanism: If the new law is not passed, the money will not be transferred.
The lack of foreign currency capital flows takes place in the context of Ukraine's budget having a serious deficit for many consecutive years.
Currently, the country's domestic revenue is only sufficient to cover military activities. The entire remaining portion of the budget, including state apparatus operating costs and social security, depends on foreign aid.
Notably, most of this aid is provided in the form of loans, not non-refundable aid. Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov said that without continuous loans from the West, the Ukrainian state would no longer be able to maintain operations.
