Three Ukrainian cities have been named as the leaders in terms of support for the Armed Forces of Ukraine — a study
In 2025, Vinnytsia, Chernihiv and Khmelnytskyi provided the most support to the Ukrainian army. Their level of support for the Armed Forces of Ukraine exceeded 13%. Despite the fact that Kyiv’s expenditure in 2025 exceeded 116 billion hryvnias, the capital ranked only fourth in terms of support for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
This is according to a study by CHESNO.
Vinnytsia tops the ranking — in terms of the percentage of the city budget allocated to supporting the military, 17.6% was set aside here. That is, out of 8.4 billion in expenditure, including official transfers, the city spent 1.49 billion on security and defence. The support took the form of state budget subsidies and direct purchases of necessary equipment for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine and volunteer units. In addition, the city purchased military bonds worth 350 million UAH.
In second place is Chernihiv: out of a budget of nearly 5 billion UAH, the local authority allocated over 700 million to support the Defence Forces (14.5%). It should be noted that the full planned amount for 2025 is unknown, as the city council’s response regarding social protection for military personnel and their families only specified the allocated amount — 236 million UAH.
In third place is Khmelnytskyi, which boosted the defence sector by 774 million from its 6 billion UAH annual budget. In terms of the types of assistance, the city combined the aforementioned inter-budgetary transfers with direct procurement. In addition, 16.4 million UAH was allocated to the “Grant Support Programme for Innovative Projects to Enhance Ukraine’s Defence Capabilities”. Its aim is to stimulate the creation of military-related inventions and technological developments.
In absolute terms, however, Kyiv remains the leader — the capital allocated 13.8 billion hryvnias to the army in 2025 out of the 14.6 billion planned. The main source of funding was the “Defender of Kyiv” targeted programme, which amounted to 12.2 billion. The remainder of the sum was allocated to social payments for military personnel.
Thus, under the “Support for Kyiv Residents — Defenders of Ukraine” programme, the city allocated 1.5 billion hryvnias (out of the 2.3 billion planned for 2025) and made one-off financial payments totalling 7.8 million hryvnias to 195 Kyiv residents who had returned from captivity. Compared to Kyiv’s total budget, the share allocated to the Defence Forces amounted to 11.87%.
