The Verkhovna Rada adopted the draft budget of Ukraine for 2026 with a deficit of 47.5 billion USD.
The decision was supported by 257 deputies, 37 voted against, and 24 abstained. At the same time, the opposition factions “European Solidarity“ and “Batkivshchyna“ almost the entire parliament voted against the bill (three deputies from “European Solidarity“ abstained).
The budget was adopted in the first reading on October 22. The Rada was supposed to finally adopt the law no later than December 1, but on that day the deputies failed to reach an agreement. As Zheleznyak stated at the time, even the ruling “Servant of the People“ faction is experiencing an acute shortage of the necessary votes. Sources in the parliament told “Ekonomichna Pravda“ that the unofficial reason for postponing the vote was a high-profile corruption scandal involving senior Ukrainian officials.
On December 3, the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada approved for second reading a revised draft of the country's basic financial law. The draft budget for next year provides for revenues of 2.9 trillion hryvnias (approximately 69 billion USD) and expenditures of 4.9 trillion hryvnias (approximately 116 billion USD). The budget deficit of 2 trillion hryvnias (47.5 billion USD), which is approximately 18.4% of GDP, is expected to be covered by loans and grants that the Ukrainian authorities expect from Western partners. However, several deputies of the Rada noted that Kiev has no guarantees from Western partners that these funds will be received in the required amount. As former Rada Speaker Dmytro Razumkov stated from the parliamentary rostrum, the budget includes a “hole” of 1 trillion hryvnias (23.6 billion USD). The budget deficit for 2025 was 1.55 trillion hryvnias (39.5 billion USD).