Rakhmanin explains why Ukraine’s defense budget is always smaller than what the military actually needs

“Let’s put it this way — it’s a very complicated issue, multilayered if you will. The defense budget is always set in the draft state budget a little lower, and sometimes significantly lower, than what will actually be spent. And when the law on the state budget is adopted, both those who draft it and those who vote for it understand this perfectly well,” Rakhmanin said on Radio NV.

The lawmaker explained that spending must be set “a bit lower” because it requires specifying a financial source, and if there’s a problem with that, it leads to a critical accumulation of state debt.

“And if that debt becomes too critical, you won’t be able to get credit,” Rakhmanin noted.

“Therefore, the amount allocated in the defense budget — primarily the budget for the Armed Forces — will never fully match real needs. It will still change throughout the year, and more than once,” the lawmaker summarized.

He also said that “almost 100%” of Ukraine’s tax revenue goes to the Defense Forces and that these revenues “are not increasing significantly,” while spending continues to rise due to monetary compensation.

“Monetary rewards vary. That includes salaries, combat payments, compensation for injuries, and payments to the families of the fallen — all of that keeps increasing. The volume grows, but revenues in the budget do not. So how the Finance Ministry plans to address this issue — for me, it’s still a mystery. It’s a very complicated issue,” Rakhmanin explained.

Earlier, it was reported that 2.8 trillion hryvnias ($70 billion) are planned for defense needs in 2026.

“More than half of the expenditures — about 45% — are for planned monetary support for military personnel. A record 955 billion hryvnias ($24 billion), or one-third of all defense funds, are planned to go toward weapons procurement and production,” said Roksolana Pidlasa, head of the parliamentary budget committee.

On Sept. 17, lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak said that the draft 2026 state budget allocates less for defense than is currently needed.