Who really pays for what in the war on Ukraine? A tale of three burdens

As transatlantic talks over Ukraine’s future intensify, one topic looms large, particularly in the statements made by US President Donald Trump: Who is paying what?

The debate over the billions poured into the war effort to help Ukraine fend off the Russian attacks in Moscow's all-out war since February 2022, and whether the burden is shared fairly, now sits at the centre of the ongoing diplomatic efforts.

Euronews breaks down exactly who is paying what, and more importantly — how much of a burden this cost is, relative to each country.

Defence spending in terms of US and EU GDP

In November of last year, Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, approved a record military budget of 2.23 trillion hryvnias (€45.9bn) for 2025. At the time, this amounted to 26.3% of the country's GDP or 55% of its total budget.

In July, the amount was revised to include an extra 412.3 billion hryvnias (€8.6m) for additional military personnel support, weapons procurement and manufacturing, bringing the total up to 31% of GDP or 67% of all central government spending.

Spending as a share of the budget indicates the proportion of a government’s own resources allocated to a priority, such as defence, compared to all other expenditures.

Whereas spending as a share of GDP measures that same amount against the size of the entire economy—so it includes private companies and other economic activity — to show the burden on the nation's economy as a whole.

While Ukraine's 2.64 trillion hryvnias (€55bn) defence budget reflects immediate survival needs, the broader war costs reveal a €700 billion total burden spanning reconstruction, humanitarian needs, and economic losses. Defence spending, though historically unprecedented, represents just one component of the war's financial impact on the country.

In comparison, the EU's spending on Ukraine's defence efforts — which includes both EU direct spending and bilateral spending by member states — is around €72 billion for the three-year period, 2022-2024.

In terms of percentage of GDP, that comes out at around 0.3% of EU GDP per year.

The US spending on Ukrainian defence alone over the same three years has been $66.9 billion (€57.3bn), according to the State Department.

This is much lower than the $300 billion figure US President Donald Trump has mentioned in the past.

In terms of percentage of GDP, it amounts to about 0.08% of US GDP per year.

We put together the graph below to visualise the stark differences.

While it comes as no surprise that the amount spent on Ukraine's defence for economic powerhouses like the US and EU is only a sliver of their annual GDP, it puts the total, real cost of Russia's war for Ukrainians into perspective.

Cost of the war in Ukraine in terms of the burden to individual citizens

Another way to put the numbers into context is how much each individual citizen pays for the defence costs of Ukraine.

If we were to take Ukraine's defence spending budget and divide based on a general estimate of its current population, at around 37.86 million — figures are unclear due to a large number of refugees and internally displaced Ukrainians — then we can deduce that over the 2022–2024 period, each Ukrainian effectively paid around €3,424 toward defence or about €1,312 per year.

This is far higher, both absolutely and relatively, than what US or EU citizens contribute.

Pinning down a firm, fixed figure for funding sent by the US to Ukraine since 2022 is difficult as funding and dispersement decisions do not neatly align with defence or spending budgets the way they did for our Ukraine calculation, but let us assume the most generous numbers.

If we were to take the Kiel Institute's figure of $130.6 billion (€111.28 billion) — this includes both the defence support and humanitarian aid figures over at least three years — and split that by the US population number, then each US citizen has paid $127 (€108) per year for the defence of Ukraine.

For the EU, if we once again take the Kiel Institute's estimates of total military and financial commitments at around €138 billion, then the figure for each EU citizen is around €95 per year.

Now, unlike the US estimate, the figures should technically not be the same for the entire bloc because some countries contribute more to Ukraine's defence and others contribute little-to-nothing apart from the joint EU budget, like Hungary.

Also, some non-EU countries in Europe such as Norway contribute to the Ukraine's defence via an additional instrument, the European Peace Facility. Most estimations of EU aid to Kyiv do not include the EPF funds.

But for the sake of estimation, let us say the burden is evenly spread out. The graph below illustrates the stark difference from the known figures.

Of course, it should be said that the average annual salary of a Ukrainian citizen is around €3,500 — making their contribution to the war effort equivalent to about a third of the average annual salary.

The numbers above seem much less of a burden if we compare the average salary in the EU, which is around €29,600 according to Eurostat, and in the US, which is around $62,000 or €56,880.

Costs of wartime destruction

Ukraine faces €448.6 billion in reconstruction needs over the next decade, nearly nine times the 2025 defence budget. The World Bank's Fourth Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment, released on 25 February, documented €150 billion in direct infrastructure damage.

Housing damage and destruction lead all sectors at €48.8 billion, affecting 2.5 million households and requiring €71 billion for reconstruction. Transport infrastructure sustained €31.6 billion in damage, needing €66.7 billion for full restoration.

The energy sector, targeted heavily in 2024, faces reconstruction costs reaching €58.2 billion.

In comparison, the US and the EU have seen no direct infrastructure costs or damages due to fighting, apart from incidents related to Russian sabotage such as the damage done to subsea telecom cables in the Baltic region in December 2024.

These figures capture only the economic side of the war. The far greater cost is borne in lives lost, families displaced and communities destroyed — numbers that no ledger can fully account for.