Ukraine’s parliament has approved the most aggressive defense budget increase in the country’s history, adding 1.56 trillion hryvnias, roughly $34.7 billion, to its 2026 spending on defense and security. President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the updated budget into law, pushing total planned military and national security expenditure to approximately 2.8 trillion hryvnias, or $66.3 billion.
That figure represents about 27.2% of Ukraine’s GDP. For context, the US spends around 3.4% of its GDP on defense.
The numbers behind the budget
The 2026 state budget projects overall revenues of about 2.9 trillion hryvnias ($68.7 billion) against expenditures of 4.8 trillion hryvnias ($113.8 billion). In plain terms, Ukraine plans to spend nearly twice what it expects to collect.
That gap, roughly $45 billion, will need to be covered by international aid, borrowing, and alternative funding channels. Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko highlighted that the budget includes allocations of around $2 billion for military personnel and UAH 40 billion ($887 million) for regional resilience plans.
