External financing of Ukraine's budget since start of Russia's full-scale aggression exceeds $172 bln — Finance Ministry

External financing since the start of Russia's full-scale aggression in February 2022 that has already been received by the budget exceeds $172 billion, Ukrainian Deputy Finance Minister Olha Zykova said, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reports.

"Perhaps some of you may think this is a huge, incredible amount, but definitely over $40 billion a year is the minimum needed to maintain public services for the country's citizens. This is the scale because we have a large economy and a large country," she said at the fourth Ukraine Resilience business forum, held by the Luxembourg-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce in Luxembourg on March 4.

Zykova specified that in this year's state budget, 27.2% of GDP, which exceeds $61 billion, is allocated to the defense and security sector, leaving less than $40 billion to cover social expenditures.

According to her, for reconstruction and rapid recovery, Ukraine needs external financing "in a more predictable and systematic way."

"Speaking about rapid recovery and reconstruction, we can do nothing without our key partners, among which, first of all, are international financial institutions, which since the start of the war have become very creative and flexible, even with their strong bureaucratic mandates," the deputy minister said.

Summing up, Zykova noted that given the need to balance between defense and social welfare, Ukraine advocates for having concessional financing from external partners rather than trying to cover everything from the state budget.

According to Finance Ministry data as of March 4, 2026, on its website, the volume of financing from international partners since the start of the full-scale aggression amounted to $172.94 billion, of which from the EU — $56.94 billion, the U.S. — $30.24 billion, and according to the ERA mechanism from revenues from frozen Russian assets — $42.74 billion.

Significant amounts also came from the IMF — $14.88 billion, Japan — $8.98 billion, the World Bank — $6.02 billion, Canada — $5.41 billion, Great Britain — $3.03 billion, Germany — $1.67 billion.

The budget received over $100 million from the European Investment Bank — $0.72 billion, Norway — $0.52 billion, France — $0.44 billion, Italy — $0.33 billion, the Netherlands — $0.32 billion, the Council of Europe Development Bank — $0.24 billion, Spain and South Korea — $0.1 billion each.

The new four-year Extended Fund Facility program with the International Monetary Fund for $8.1 billion, of which the first tranche of $1.5 billion has already been disbursed, provides that under the baseline scenario of the war ending by the end of this year, Ukraine's external financing needs during the program period will be $136.5 billion. Under the negative scenario of the war continuing in 2027 and gradually transitioning into a frozen conflict in 2028, they are estimated at $146.3 billion.

According to the program, under the baseline scenario this year Ukraine must attract $52 billion in external financing, next year — $43.7 billion, in 2028 — $22.5 billion, while under the negative scenario the needs this year increase to $53.7 billion, next year — to $45.3 billion, in 2028 — to $24.3 billion.