Ukraine spends a record 31.1% of GDP on defense – head of budget committee

Ukraine spends a record share of GDP on defense in the world – 31.1%. This was reported by Roksolana Pidlasa, head of the budget committee, summarizing the adoption of amendments to the Budget-2025 in the first reading, which add more than UAH 400 billion for national security and defense, writes UNN.

After the amendments to the Budget-2025, by which we add UAH 412.4 billion to the national security and defense sector, the financial resource for the sector will amount to UAH 2.6 trillion. This is 31.1% of the projected GDP for this year. And Ukraine has been consistently ranking first in the world in this indicator for several years.

For comparison, she cited SIPRI data: Israel ranks second in the world, spending 8.8% of its GDP on defense. “Of course, one can argue that Israel’s nominal GDP is higher than Ukraine’s, but even in absolute terms, last year Ukraine spent $20 billion more on defense needs than Israel,” Pidlasa pointed out.

“We also spend an extremely large share of our budget on defense needs – 62.5% of general fund expenditures in the first half of 2025. After the changes, it will be 59% of general fund expenditures (plan, in fact, possibly more) and 66% of all expenditures,” the head of the budget committee reported.

At the same time, she noted: “Ukraine mobilizes all these resources independently – through its own revenues and domestic borrowings, because, with the exception of Great Britain, international partners currently do not allow their assistance to be used for the needs of the sector.” “The question is how justified this restriction is when Russia’s war budget is $140-150 billion (according to various estimates). This is almost 2.5 times more than Ukraine’s defense budget,” Pidlasa pointed out.

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