Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers submits 2025 state budget draft to Verkhovna Rada

Today, September 14, a draft law on Ukraine's state budget for 2025, designated as Bill No. 12000, was registered on the parliament's website. The project is initiated by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

It should be noted that yesterday the government approved the state budget for 2025. Revenue is projected to reach 2 trillion UAH, while expenditures are expected to be 3.6 trillion UAH.

Earlier, First Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Korniienko stated that the budget draft would be conservative. He noted that Ukraine "has no means to spend significantly on anything."

Korniienko reminded that all taxes collected in Ukraine are allocated to military expenses. Social and other expenditures are funded through international aid, which constitutes about half of the budget expenditures.

At the same time, Ukraine lacks revenue to fund the army, with the figure this year being approximately 500 billion UAH. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal stated that this is due to the government's expectation of the war ending by mid-2024.

Budget declaration

It should be noted that in the Budget Declaration for 2025-2027, the Cabinet of Ministers has defined spending on security and defense as the main priority of the budget.

The volumes of state budget expenditures for the medium-term period on security and defense are set as follows: for 2025, 2,226.8 billion UAH; for 2026, 1,626.8 billion UAH; and for 2027, 1,532.8 billion UAH.

Overall, budget expenditures will amount to: for 2025, 3,955.5 billion UAH; for 2026, 3,788.1 billion UAH; and for 2027, 3,912.5 billion UAH.

The Cabinet also proposed to forgo increasing the minimum wage and the minimum subsistence level, which affect the amount of social payments.

On the evening of Friday, September 13, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced that the government had approved the draft state budget for 2025. The budget identifies three priorities: defense capability, funding for protected budget items, and support for regions and businesses.

Budget procedure

According to the regulations, the government is required to submit the draft budget for the following year by September 15. The Cabinet must then present the draft to the Verkhovna Rada, after which parliament will begin its review. The procedure includes three readings.

The document must be approved in the first reading by October 20. Significant changes to the draft will be made by the second reading. The budget must be adopted in the second reading by November 20 and finalized by December 1 at the latest.

It should be recalled that the Verkhovna Rada approved the law on the state budget for 2024 on November 9, 2023, with revenues of 1.769 trillion UAH and expenditures of 3.355 trillion UAH. At that time, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal emphasized that the key focus of the budget was defense and security, with over half of all budget resources allocated to these areas—1.685 trillion UAH.