The government has postponed most of the unprotected expenditures of the state budget to December due to delays in external financing. People's Deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak links the problems to spending on a number of social programs, which he estimates at least 59-65 billion UAH. Earlier, the deputy had already criticized expenditures on new programs. Zheleznyak mentioned this in his video blog.
How much, according to Zheleznyak, social programs cost
On September 7, the head of the parliamentary committee on finance, tax and customs policy, Danilo Hetmantsev, reported on the postponement of expenditures. According to him, most of the unprotected payments were postponed to December due to delays in financing after Ukraine failed to fulfill part of its international obligations.
Zheleznyak claims that the situation has been worsened by large-scale budget programs launched since the end of 2025. He included one-time payments, national cashback, fuel compensation, and other initiatives among them.
«The account of these distributions within a year, even a shorter period from November to September, is estimated from 59 to 65 billion», — said the people's deputy.
Separately, Zheleznyak mentioned 16 billion UAH allocated to Ukrzaliznytsia. Taking these funds into account, he estimates the total amount at approximately 81 billion UAH. This is the deputy's assessment and political interpretation, not the official calculation of the government.
Some of the funds indeed went through the reserve fund, but it also finances critically important needs. As of the end of March, money from it was allocated, in particular, for critical infrastructure and energy.
Zheleznyak proposed to allocate more funds to the military
The deputy named the monetary provision of servicemen as a separate problem. According to him, basic payments for many servicemen have not been reviewed for a long time, and the resource for a significant general salary increase in the budget is not provided.
«If we took the 60 billion that the government distributed on its populism, we could significantly raise the salary for those who earn the least in the army», — Zheleznyak stated.
He proposes to refuse national cashback, fuel compensations, and a part of one-time payments during the budget process for 2027, and direct the freed resources to increase the financial provision of military personnel.
At the same time, there are more reasons for budget difficulties. Zheleznyak himself names among them the consequences of Russian attacks and problems with logistics, while Hetmantsev directly linked the postponement of unprotected expenditures to delays in international financing. Therefore, the assertion that it is precisely social programs that caused the funds deficit remains Zheleznyak's assessment.
Recall that earlier Inkorr wrote about the shortage of funds for military payments, which Zheleznyak pointed out during the review of the 2026 budget.