Rada passes 2026 budget with 257 votes as teachers get raises, military salaries remain unchanged

The Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) began second reading consideration of the draft state budget for 2026, a Public Broadcasting correspondent reports.

Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko presented the document. Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko was also present in the chamber.

Budget Committee Chair Roksolana Pidlasa outlined key proposals she urged colleagues to support. Local budgets would receive an additional 4% from personal income tax, raising their share to 64%. These funds would be earmarked for energy payments and settling arrears on energy tariff differences.

"The subsidy for tariff differences, which was planned at 15.2 billion hryvnias ($360 mn), [should be] excluded (to balance the reduction in state budget revenues)," Pidlasa said.

The committee also proposed adding 1 billion hryvnias for weapons and military equipment procurement by the Ministry of Defense, taken from the "military reserve" program. Another 244 million hryvnias would go to the Bureau of Economic Security, drawn from the reserve fund.

Teacher salaries would increase 30% starting 1 January and another 20% from 1 September. "Without any changes in approaches to teacher pay," Pidlasa emphasized. She said an additional 4.8 billion hryvnias for the teacher prestige program "to have the opportunity to consider further increases in teachers' salaries during the year."

The Verkhovna Rada voted for the draft state budget of Ukraine for 2026 as a whole. 257 MPs voted in favor.

Several parliamentarians spoke against the document during the session. They mentioned the absence of military salary increases, funding for the "Unified Marathon," and road construction.

The government noted that issues including military salaries could be reviewed. Officials also reminded that passing this budget is one of the prior conditions for the IMF program.