President Zelensky asks for $40 billion in aid for Ukraine at G7
At the G7 summit in Canada, Mr. Zelensky asked for $40 billion in annual aid for Ukraine.
According to RIA Novosti on June 18, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky once again asked for aid in his speech at the G7 summit. Accordingly, he proposed $40 billion annually to support Ukraine. Excerpts from the speech were posted on his Telegram channel.
“It is important to provide $40 billion in annual budget support to Ukraine for our sustainability, so that our country can hold on. And this should be a joint decision of the G7 leaders, including the United States,” the Ukrainian president said at the summit.
Mr. Zelensky has frequently asked for help from the West. He previously said that at the G7 summit, he would once again ask US President Donald Trump for an arms package for Ukraine. However, their meeting did not take place. White House press secretary Caroline Levitt said President Trump decided to leave the G7 summit in Canada early and return to the United States due to tensions in the Middle East.
In addition, Mr. Zelensky also plans to ask the US President to reject the decision to reduce military aid to Ukraine, as previously announced by Defense Minister Peter Heghseth.
Deputy Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament Yaroslva Zheleznyak said that the country's Finance Ministry plans to revise the budget for 2025, cutting spending by hundreds of billions of hryvnia, which will reduce the deficit to 9.9%. According to Zheleznyak, Finance Minister Marchenko also said in his speech to the Parliament that due to non-fulfillment of international obligations, Ukraine has lost "almost two billion external finances".
In April 2025, the Ukrainian edition of "Economic Truth", citing government sources, reported that the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense was using money from military salaries to buy weapons. According to the publication, the Ukrainian government and parliament will soon need to change the budget for the current year, otherwise there will be no money left in the treasury to pay the army's salaries. According to the publication's sources, the Ukrainian budget is short by more than 200 billion hryvnia, or almost $4.8 billion.
