KYIV: Ukrainian lawmakers voted on Tuesday to approve the government’s 2025 budget, in which more than $50 billion – or 60 percent of all expenditure – is allocated to defence and security.
Kyiv has been forced to massively ramp up military spending as it fights against Russia’s better-resourced army in a war that has now been raging for 1,000 days.
MPs voted to approve defence and security outlays of 2.23 trillion Ukrainian hryvnia ($54 billion), out of a general budget of 3.6 trillion hryvnia ($87 billion), according to budget documents published by the finance ministry.
“Given the limited resources, this budget clearly defines priorities – defence, security, support for people, development and restoration of the country,” Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said.
“These are the things that make us stronger and lead to victory.”
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“All taxes on citizens and businesses next year will be used for the defence and security of our country,” Shmygal added in the post on social media.
The budget now passes to President Volodymyr Zelensky to be signed into law.
Moscow’s war has battered the Ukrainian economy since February 2022, causing tens of billions of dollars in destruction, punching a huge hole in state finances and forcing Kyiv to rely on Western support to keep itself afloat.
In a sign of the challenge faced by Kyiv in funding the war, Russia plans to spend three times as much in dollar-terms on its own defence and security next year.
Moscow’s draft budget earmarks 13.5 trillion rubles ($135 billion) for defence – and another 3.5 trillion rubles ($35 billion) for “domestic security”.
Ukraine’s defence spending in 2025 is only slightly higher than this year’s after the country upped its budgeted outlays for 2024 by a third in September.
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