Ukraine plans second 2025 budget increase in a month, focusing on non-military needs

Next week, the Verkhovna Rada will consider the second amendment to Ukraine’s 2025 state budget in just one month, Budget Committee Chair Roksolana Pidlasa announced.

On July 31, MPs approved a bill to increase expenditures by UAH 412 billion to fund defense needs. Lawmakers will now turn their attention to non-military spending.

Pidlasa outlined the key proposed spending increases:

  • UAH 25.7 billion – replenishment of the state budget reserve fund for unforeseen military and humanitarian expenses;
  • UAH 4.3 billion – for the Ministry of Digital Transformation to purchase special equipment, drones, and combat-testing gear, as well as to provide grants for defense-tech production development;
  • UAH 4.6 billion – for school meals for all primary school students nationwide, and for students in grades 5–11 in frontline regions;
  • UAH 3.2 billion – procurement of medicines for treating cancer, viral hepatitis, rare (orphan) diseases, hemophilia, and other conditions under the state program;
  • UAH 1.5 billion – subvention to local budgets for developing a network of military lyceums that provide patriotic education for children;
  • UAH 1.2 billion – support for war veterans and their families, including financial assistance and insurance compensations.

Separately, the draft budget proposes reallocating UAH 1 billion for constructing new housing or renovating premises for internally displaced persons (IDPs).

"These additional expenditures will be offset by reducing other non-military spending by UAH 36.7 billion—UAH 33.6 billion of which will come from lower public debt servicing costs—as well as by redirecting part of the bank profit tax from the Kyiv city budget to the state’s general fund (UAH 8 billion)," Pidlasa explained.

  • The Cabinet of Ministers initiated the budget revision back in June. Parliament will soon also need to pass the 2026 state budget.