Main points:<\/strong><\/p>\n Drones, electronic warfare systems, and vehicles: where the communities’ money is going<\/p>\n The largest expenditure item for communities last year was the purchase of equipment for the front lines.<\/p>\n For the acquisition of UAVs, quadcopters, FPV drones, electronic warfare systems, and vehicles, 223 communities allocated 6.8 billion UAH. This accounts for just over 10% of their total budgets.<\/p>\n Geography of support<\/p>\n Under the Territorial Defense Assistance Program, the leading communities in terms of allocated funds were in the following regions:<\/p>\n In addition to direct assistance to the army, the study covered expenditures on the arrangement of shelters, restoration of destroyed facilities, assistance to IDPs, and subsidies to state and regional budgets.<\/p>\n In particular, in 2025, communities returned 3.2 billion UAH to the state budget in the form of subsidies for military units.<\/p>\n Budget dilemma: between Kyiv and the front<\/p>\n Despite the desire to assist the army, local authorities are constrained by the norms of the Budget Code. Every expenditure must correspond to clear powers, and some direct purchases for the Armed Forces may be interpreted as violations.<\/p>\n The chairman of the board of the NGO “Interns League,” veteran Mykola Melnyk, describes the situation as paradoxical.<\/p>\n “The state expects that communities will lend a shoulder and take on part of the expenses for the Armed Forces, while local authorities simultaneously look to Kyiv, reminding that defense is a prerogative of the center. Unfortunately, there is still a weak understanding: if the Defense Forces cannot protect us, then local budgets will no longer be needed,” says Melnyk.<\/p>\n Locally, the priority of assistance is explained by the survival of regions. In particular, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration, Oleksandr Hanzha, noted that in 2026, the region and its communities plan to allocate at least 2 billion UAH to support defenders.<\/p>\n Civilian safety: leaders in shelter arrangements<\/p>\n A separate block of the study focused on expenditures for civil protection. CID analyst Olesya Malyavina notes that from 2024 to 2026, Kharkiv region is the undisputed leader in shelter expenditures, with 25 surveyed communities allocating more than 2.1 billion UAH for these purposes.<\/p>\n The amounts also lead in terms of expenditures for eliminating the consequences of armed aggression, which is due to constant shelling of the border areas.<\/p>\n Forecast for 2026: numbers are declining<\/p>\n Despite the increase in the share of defense spending in 2025 (from 8% to 10.2%), plans for the current year 2026 appear more restrained:<\/p>\n One of the reasons for the uncertainty is the lack of the President’s signature on bill No. 9559-d, which is supposed to expand the powers of communities in the area of defense support.<\/p>\n CID partners under the “Needle” initiative have already inquired about the reasons for the delay in signing the document, but have not yet received a response.<\/p>\n New models: attracting charitable foundations<\/p>\n To enhance the efficiency of procurement, experts suggest changing the approach to operational activities. The head of the military direction of the Serhiy Prytula Foundation, Bohdan Danilov, believes that military units should be able to work with charitable foundations as procurement operators.<\/p>\n “Currently, there are situations where a unit has resources but cannot use them as effectively as possible. At the same time, foundations have more flexibility – especially in foreign procurement,” he notes.<\/p>\n Director of IT and Analytics at CID Mykhailo Leichenko concludes that local self-government should have autonomy<\/strong> in managing funds.<\/p>\n “This is about the right of communities to independently determine financial priorities. At the same time, such freedom entails full responsibility for the decision,” says Leichenko.<\/p>\n Previously, we reported that according to the State Treasury Service, the expenditures of the general fund of the state budget for security and defense from January to November 2025 amounted to 2.22 trillion UAH.<\/strong> This is equal to 62.9% of all expenditures of the general fund. In particular, in November, 221.7 billion UAH was spent.<\/p>\n Also read about how interest in Ukrainian weapons sharply increased with the onset of the war in Iran, primarily among Middle Eastern countries. Moreover, this concerns not only anti-drone systems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In 2026, a decline in defense spending by municipalities is expected. What is the reason for this? In 2025, Ukrainian municipalities significantly increased their expenditures to support the Defense Forces, despite legislative restrictions and the withdrawal of military income tax. However, forecasts for 2026 indicate a potential reduction in funding for key areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"magazine_newspaper_sidebar_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-en"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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![](\"https:\/\/cid.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/3-1024x576.jpg\")
Expenditure volumes by regions (CID infographic)<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cid.center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2-1024x576.jpg\")
What communities spent on (CID infographic)<\/p>\n\n