Ukraine says it needs $120bn for defence in 2026 as war grinds on

Ukraine will require at least $120 billion for its defence budget in 2026 as the war with Russia enters its fourth year, Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Saturday.

Speaking at an annual conference in Kyiv, Shmyhal said the funding was vital to maintain frontline defences, expand drone and weapons production, strengthen air protection, and deter further Russian aggression.

“The economy of the war demonstrates that if we spend less money than Russia, then we begin paying with our territories and, most importantly, with our lives,” he said.

Ukraine’s defence spending shot up following Russia’s invasion in February 2022, and it now spends more than 31% of its gross domestic product on its army. This year’s state budget plans at least $63 billion in defence spending, plus in-kind weapons from Kyiv’s Western allies.

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Roksolana Pidlasa, the head of the parliamentary budget committee, said that the costs of the war kept rising.

She said that in 2025, a day of the war cost $172 million compared with about $140 million in 2024. That included soldiers’ wages, weapons, and payments to those injured or killed on the battlefield, she said.

”So we need to fundraise all the needed sources, all the needed money.”

While no details of additional funding sources have been specified, Ukrainian government officials have appealed to allies to find ways to use Russian frozen assets to help Kyiv’s finances.

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The war with Russia has heated up in recent months, with fierce fighting raging along more than 1,000 km of the frontline and Russian troops ramping up their air attacks on Ukrainian cities and towns far behind it.

Diplomatic efforts to end the war have brought no tangible results as yet.

This week, tensions reached a new level as NATO fighter jets scrambled to shoot down multiple Russian drones that violated Polish airspace on Wednesday.

”Until any diplomatic solution is reached, we will need to keep fighting. And to keep fighting, we need money. And defence has an enormous financial cost,” Pidlasa said.

With inputs from agencies