Of the record 3,339 amendments to the state budget for 2026, the budget committee of the parliament recommended taking into account only 63.
On October 22, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine voted for the draft law on the state budget for 2026 in the first reading. 256 people’s deputies voted for this decision. This became known from the broadcast of the parliament session. The day before, during her speech in parliament, the head of the budget committee of the Rada, Roksolana Pidlasa, reported that people’s deputies submitted a record number of amendments to the draft state budget for 2026 for the past 19 years — 3,339.
“According to a preliminary estimate, to take into account the submitted amendments, a total of 7 trillion additional hryvnias is needed — this is another one and a half budgets for next year. Many proposals do not meet regulatory requirements. As a result of the budget committee meetings, we proposed to take into account 63 proposals,” Pidlasa noted.
Of these 63 amendments proposed for consideration, the people’s deputies rejected 16. Among them:
proposals to allocate additional funds for the purchase of vaccines for animals,
financing the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center,
financing the centralized procurement organization of the Recovery Agency,
financing grants for the construction of vegetable storage facilities.
In addition, the deputies did not support the idea of redirecting part of the funds intended for political parties to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. According to Pidlasa, the relevant committee recommends that the Cabinet of Ministers consider increasing funding for the defense sector before the second reading — primarily the purchase of weapons for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, providing for the “Alpha” unit of the Security Service of Ukraine and the Foreign Intelligence Service.
The committee also suggests that the government study the possibility of increasing salaries for secondary school teachers and lecturers at higher education institutions. The deputies supported these recommendations.
“In the field of education, the committee instructed the government to develop a new model for paying secondary school teachers so that teachers would actually feel a 50% increase in salaries, as well as to increase the level of remuneration of teachers in higher education institutions from January 1, 2026,” Pidlasa said.
In addition, according to her, the budget committee proposed that the government provide additional funding for the purchase of medicines for patients with rare diseases in addition to the UAH 15 billion already included in the draft budget.
Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko admitted that the 2026 budget “is not easy for us.”
“We are currently actively negotiating with partners in order to find a source of financing for the budget. Therefore, I ask the people’s deputies to be understanding that a proposal to increase some expenses should be followed by a proposal for a source from which they can be financed,” he emphasized.
Marchenko emphasized that the security and defense sector remains a priority, and all relevant expenditures will be fully provided.
“We believe that these expenditures are the basis of the budget and will be financed rhythmically, and not as during all the years of the war,” the head of the Ministry of Finance emphasized.
Now the Cabinet of Ministers must process the submitted proposals and return the updated document to the parliament for consideration in the second reading.
