On June 5 (local time), Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergey Marchenko admitted that the country currently does not have enough money to maintain military operations, and is expected to have to adjust its budget this year to cover the shortage.
Marchenko said the reasons for the situation included changes in military technology, delays in the transfer of aid weapons from Western countries to Ukraine, and the escalating conflict.
The minister added that even the Ukrainian government could not have foreseen this situation when it began building a defense budget for 2025 from the end of last year. "This situation cannot be forecasted linearly. Sometimes it requires complex and asymmetrical decisions, Marchenko explained.
In mid-May, lawmaker Zhelezniak estimated the military budget deficit at about 200 billion hryvnia ($4.8 billion), but later raised it to 400 to 500 billion hryvnia ($9.6 - 12 billion).
Even in April, Ukraine was expected to use the budget allocated to military salaries in the final period of 2025 to buy more unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), ammunition and many other weapons.
Although Ukraine has overcome many budget deficits in 2023 and 2024 by raising taxes, according to lawmaker Zhelezniak, this time the government has no intention of increasing taxes but will make up for the shortfall by increasing domestic borrowing and thanks to higher tax revenue than expected.
Currently, Kiev still has to rely heavily on aid and loans from the West to compensate for the economic decline caused by the conflict. The countrys officials have revealed that Ukraine will not be able to repay the debt within the next 30 years.
As of February 2025, European countries have provided Ukraine with a total of 138 billion USD in various forms, while the US provided 115 billion USD.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in 2023 that Ukraine would not be able to function for more than a week if military and financial aid from the West was completely cut off.
