The Verkhovna Rada adopted as a basis the proposals and conclusions on the draft state budget for 2027; 232 members of parliament voted for the decision. The first reading is expected on 28 October, with the final vote scheduled for the end of November.
Security priority and the government’s position
The government builds the 2027 budget on the assumption of a continued war, so security and defence will remain priority expenditures. Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko said this during a speech in the parliamentary chamber.
“The budget must be balanced. This is not about specific determined priorities, it must be a balance of the interests of everyone in the country. The primary priority is the security and defence sector, and we will decide on others depending on available resources,” he noted. Marchenko also said that one of the key funding sources is aid from international partners.
Parliamentarians’ amendments and needs assessment
During preparation of the document, members of parliament submitted more than 5,000 amendments; their consideration at the budget committee lasted over nine hours. According to the chair of the budget committee, Roksolana Pidlasa, accommodating all submitted amendments would require an additional 13.5 trillion UAH.
She also said that many proposals do not have realistic funding sources or proper calculations. The working group and the committee proposed to take into account 90 proposals in various areas, including defence and social policy.
Roadmap for changes to expenditures
Before the second reading, the government must work out the issue of increasing cash allowances for service personnel and raising state guarantees for enterprises of the defence-industrial complex. Deputies propose doubling the volume of guarantees to 60 billion UAH.
They were also instructed to consider the possibility of increasing spending on construction and purchase of housing for service personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In healthcare, the committee instructed to provide additional funding for procuring medicines for patients with rare diseases, which will supplement the 21 billion UAH already allocated for drug purchases.
