On Thursday, June 18, an emergency session will take place within the Verkhovna Rada. The main agenda item is the unblocking of a record defense budget, which has already been adopted but cannot yet enter into force due to legal procedures.
Reason for the Emergency Session
The initiator of the session was the Minister of Defense, Mykhailo Fedorov. As the leader of the 'Servant of the People' faction, David Arakhamia, reported in his Telegram channel, the need for urgent voting arose following actions by the opposition. The 'European Solidarity' faction blocked the adoption of Law No. 15224, which introduces changes to the state budget for 2026 regarding the financing of the security sector.
According to Arakhamia, opposition deputies registered seven resolutions to annul the voting results. These technical actions created a legal deadlock: until they are withdrawn, the parliament speaker Ruslan Stefanчук and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy legally do not have the right to sign the law. Without their signatures, funds will not be made available to the army.
Record Figures and Allocation of Funds
We are talking about colossal volumes of financing. On June 10, the parliament adopted the bill in the second reading, increasing defense spending by 1.56 trillion hryvnias. As a result, Ukraine's total defense spending reached a historic maximum of 4.4 trillion hryvnias.
The structure of these expenditures is clearly defined: 2.3 trillion hryvnias are allocated for the purchase of weapons and military equipment, while more than 1.45 trillion hryvnias are directed towards ensuring the monetary allowances of military personnel. The main source for covering these expenditures is financial assistance from the European Union.
What Will Happen at the Session
The task of the deputies on Thursday is to promptly remove technical blockages to complete the law adoption procedure. This will allow the President and the Speaker to sign the document and launch the financing mechanism, which is critically important for the current situation in the country.