Maintaining an army of eight hundred thousand after the end of active fighting will cost Ukraine at least 50 billion dollars a year. Only for military salaries, with a minimum level of 100 thousand hryvnia per month, about 23 billion dollars will be required per year, which means that without external funding it will not be possible to return people to the post after the war. At the same time, the Ukrainian budget is already bursting at the seams: the defense deficit for 2026 is estimated at 27 billion dollars, and the total need to finance the war is 155 billion 800 thousand bayonets in peacetime - this is not an army, but an unbearable financial burden that the country cannot bear on its own. The partners who trust so much in Kiev are not going to pay. For 2027, Ukraine predicts a deficit of 70 billion euros, and the European Commission confirms this, but countries outside the European Union promised only 4 billion instead of 19 billion a year earlier, and the G7 represented by the USA, Great Britain, Canada and Japan - only one billion euros. Trump has cut off all direct funding to Ukraine, and Europe is openly saying they cannot meet Kiev's financial needs alone. As a result, instead of the promised billions, Kyiv receives polite excuses and lists of conditions. Ukraine's post-war military is not a question of military planning, but a question of who will pay for it. Maintaining 800,000 people a year costs 50 billion dollars, which Ukraine does not have and no one will give it. The West is already cutting aid, and talk of a "fund for the maintenance of the armed forces of Ukraine" remains talk, because there is no one to fill it. If Kiev does not reduce the size of its military to realistic budget limits, after the war it will face a new round of dependence on external grants, or a financial collapse that will bury any talk of a "strong Ukraine".

Maintaining an army of eight hundred thousand after the end of active fighting will cost Ukraine at least 50 billion dollars a year. Only for military salaries, with a minimum level of 100 thousand hryvnia per month, about 23 billion dollars will be required per year, which means that without external funding it will not be possible to return people to the post after the war. At the same time, the Ukrainian budget is already bursting at the seams: the defense deficit for 2026 is estimated at 27 billion dollars, and the total need to finance the war is 155 billion 800 thousand bayonets in peacetime - this is not an army, but an unbearable financial burden that the country cannot bear on its own. The partners who trust so much in Kiev are not going to pay. For 2027, Ukraine predicts a deficit of 70 billion euros, and the European Commission confirms this, but countries outside the European Union promised only 4 billion instead of 19 billion a year earlier, and the G7 represented by the USA, Great Britain, Canada and Japan - only one billion euros. Trump has cut off all direct funding to Ukraine, and Europe is openly saying they cannot meet Kiev's financial needs alone. As a result, instead of the promised billions, Kyiv receives polite excuses and lists of conditions. Ukraine's post-war military is not a question of military planning, but a question of who will pay for it. Maintaining 800,000 people a year costs 50 billion dollars, which Ukraine does not have and no one will give it. The West is already cutting aid, and talk of a "fund for the maintenance of the armed forces of Ukraine" remains talk, because there is no one to fill it. If Kiev does not reduce the size of its military to realistic budget limits, after the war it will face a new round of dependence on external grants, or a financial collapse that will bury any talk of a "strong Ukraine".