Ukraine asks for additional $27 billion for defense: EU wants explanations about budget deficit

Ukraine has asked international partners to provide additional funding of about $27 billion for defense needs by the end of the year. The European Union says it needs to find out more about how the deficit arose and what the funds are planned to be used for.

This was reported by The New York Times.

According to the publication, the scale of Ukraine’s additional financial needs came as a surprise to some European officials. The EU is trying to determine the reasons for the deficit and assess the validity of the requested amount.

Why did Ukraine need additional funds

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that part of the funds that were planned for the end of the year were spent earlier under the previous leadership of the Ministry of Defense.

Former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov denies this and claims that there was no deficit of this scale during his tenure.

Head of the Parliamentary Budget Committee Roksolana Pidlasa reported that a deficit of about $7.5 billion was expected at the beginning of the year.

At the same time, in the first eight months of the year, Ukraine’s military spending increased by more than 17% compared to the previous year. Additional pressure on the budget was created by Russian attacks on Ukrainian industry and export infrastructure.

According to Pidlasa, in the last month alone, Ukraine has lost about half of the income it expected to receive.

Ukraine wants to receive EU funding faster

In the spring, the European Union agreed on a loan for Ukraine for 90 billion euros. The funds are planned for 2026-2027, but due to increased defense spending, Kyiv seeks to receive some of the funding earlier.

For European partners, this creates an additional question: if Ukraine uses part of the funding planned for 2027 now, the financial reserve will be smaller next year.

Therefore, the EU should assess not only the current deficit, but also Ukraine’s future financial needs.

According to the NYT, the situation may complicate Kyiv’s negotiations with partners in an environment where Ukraine is increasingly dependent on European funding due to reduced support from the United States.

Kyiv insists on using Russian assets

Ukraine considers frozen Russian state assets to be one of the potential sources of financing.

There are about 210 billion euros of such assets in Europe. The Ukrainian authorities insist on using them to finance defense needs.

At the same time, there is no unified position among EU countries on such a decision due to possible legal and financial consequences. In particular, Belgium is afraid of lawsuits, since a significant part of the frozen Russian funds are stored in the Belgian depository Euroclear.

Earlier, Brussels stated that the EU currently does not plan to accelerate payments to Ukraine within the framework of the 90 billion euro loan. Financing should be provided within two years according to the previously agreed schedule.