One day of war now costs Ukraine $190 million – MP Pidlasa
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Ukrainian soldier in the combat zone (Photo: REUTERS/Anatolii Stepanov)
A single day of war now costs Ukraine about $190 million in 2026, around $50 million more than in 2024, Roksolana Pidlasa, head of the budget committee in Ukraine’s parliament, said on Facebook on Sept. 14.
The $190 million figure does not include weapons supplied by Ukraine’s foreign partners.
She explained that costs have risen in recent years because of the growing size of Ukraine’s armed forces and, at the same time, the larger number of soldier families to whom the state guarantees support.
She also said the military’s demand for weapons continues to rise, especially for medium- and long-range strike systems used to hit Russian oil refineries.
According to Pidlasa, Ukraine has spent nearly $42 billion on national security and defense in the first eight months of the year, excluding foreign military aid, while it has managed to raise only $39 billion from its own resources.
Ukraine’s Defense Forces have also reported a financial need of $27 billion through the end of the year — a shortfall President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had previously mentioned.
Pidlasa said revenues are lower than expected because Russia has been deliberately striking sectors that generate budget income. Over eight months, she said, Ukraine has lost about $1.35 billion in expected domestic and import VAT revenue, with one-quarter of that shortfall occurring in August alone.
On Sept. 7, Russia’s Finance Ministry reported that federal budget spending on the war against Ukraine in the first half of 2026 had reached a new record of 10.687 trillion rubles, or about $123.4 billion.
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