It may take the country decades to repay its public debt of over $190 billion, lawmakers have stressed
Ukrainian lawmakers have voiced alarm over new Finance Ministry figures revealing that the country’s public debt has ballooned to unseen levels, a burden that will take more than three decades to repay.
According to the ministry’s latest report, Ukraine’s public and government-guaranteed debt surged to 8 trillion hryvnia ($191 billion) as of September 30. The European Solidarity Party said the pace and scale of borrowing have shocked MPs, who now face the grim reality that interest payments alone will drain more than $90 billion from the state coffers over the coming decades.
“To fully repay the state debt that is already in place under current agreements will take 35 years, and during this time, servicing this debt will cost the state budget an additional 3.8 trillion hryvnias ($90.5 billion),” the party stated.
The IMF last month updated its forecasts for Ukraine’s public debt level, now expecting it to reach 108.6% of GDP by the end of 2025 and rising further to 110.4% in 2026. The IMF has revised its projections for Ukrainian debt higher despite the successful restructuring in 2024 of $20.5 billion in Eurobond securities. However, the same year, the country’s budget deficit reached $43.9 billion.
A recent report by Ukraine’s KSE Institute estimates the country’s budget gap for 2025-2028 at $53 billion per year, a sum that foreign sponsors would have to cover. These figures do not include additional military financing.
The Economist recently estimated that Ukraine will require around $400 billion in cash and arms over the next four years to continue fighting and cover essential domestic costs.
Keeping Ukraine afloat financially is largely expected to fall to the EU given decreased American involvement. However, such a prospect has faced internal opposition. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban stated that “there’s no one else left willing to pick up the tab.”
Orban, a long-time critic of aid to Ukraine, called Brussels “agitated” for seeking new funding through frozen Russian assets and fresh loans, rejecting the plan as not Hungary’s responsibility.
Moscow condemned the initiative as “theft,” warning it undermines trust in Western finance.
