“In the first quarter of 2025, Ukraine significantly increased the funding of the defense sphere – the costs of security and state protection have reached almost 75% of the entire state budget. This conclusion was made by the Accounting Chamber, analyzing the implementation of the law on the state budget during this period. The main reason for this growth was increased aggression by Russia, which forced the government to refocus financial resources to needs”, – WRITE ON: ua.news
In the first quarter of 2025, Ukraine significantly increased the funding of the defense sphere – the costs of security and state protection have reached almost 75% of the entire state budget.
This conclusion was made by the Accounting Chamber, analyzing the implementation of the law on the state budget during this period.
The main reason for this growth was the increased aggression by Russia, which forced the government to reorient financial resources to the needs of the army and the defense industry.
External sources – loans from international partners and irreversible assistance – played a significant role in filling the budget. The share of such revenues increased from 9% to 27%. In total, the budget revenues for January-March 2025 amounted to UAH 926.2 billion, which is 44.3% more than in the corresponding period last year.
Significant growth was provided by budgetary institutions, especially those subordinated to the Ministry of Defense – they increased 2.2 times.
At the same time, the share of tax revenues in the budget structure decreased by 10 percentage points. State expenditures for the first quarter reached 1.2 trillion UAH – this is 38.5% more than in the same period of 2024.
The main part of these funds is aimed at the purchase, modernization and repair of weapons, military equipment and equipment.
To cover defense needs, some of the funds were even redistributed to be spent on pay in October-December 2025-it was about UAH 174.8 billion.
However, despite its revenue, the Accounting Chamber warns about serious risks to implement the budget.
In particular, there is a reduction in the revenue part of local budgets and social insurance funds by reducing the number of registered FOPs, monetary and financial instability and increased inflation pressure.
In January-March, real GDP increased by only 0.5% when forecasting a year by 2.7%, which can lead to lack of planned income.
Among the key factors that held back economic growth is the fall in exports by 8.7%. The export of food and raw materials for their production, as well as iron ores, was especially reduced.
The reasons are the weak grain yields and the decrease in world prices for ore. Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko has already stated that the government is preparing an alternative budget scenario, designed to continue the fighting in 2026.
According to Marchenko, this year’s military expenditures exceeded the indicators laid down in the budget.
We will remind, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) predicts that the growth of the Ukrainian economy in 2025 will slow down to 2% and will remain at this level in 2026.
We have already reported that last year the defense industry of Ukraine produced products for $ 9 billion, providing a third of all economic growth of the country.
