Kyiv Post: defence budget '$27 billion short'; Censor.NET: Zelensky orders it funded '100%' by year end

The gap. On Monday 28 September, Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said that the defence budget is "$27 billion short", the Kyiv Post reports. He said $7 billion would come from austerity and $20 billion from Western partners. Defence, pensions and public-sector salaries will be paid first. Projects that are not essential are postponed "due to delayed international aid". The Kyiv Post says he "reiterated" the figure, so it is not new.

The order. Censor.NET's headline says President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered defence needs to be funded "на 100%" (in full) by the end of the year. The text we hold says only that he met the prime minister and his diplomatic team about financial needs. It gives no sum and does not say where the money comes from.

The daily bill. Le Figaro's headline puts the war's cost at "165 millions d'euros par jour" (€165 million a day). It does not say whose estimate that is or what it counts. It says, without attribution, that Europeans are "scraping the bottom of the drawer".

These are three different measures. None of them can be set against another.

What is not settled - Which projects are postponed, and who loses by it. No report names them. - Who delayed the aid. The Kyiv Post names no government. - How a full-funding order fits with a $27bn gap. - Whose estimate the €165m is, and what it counts.

This story is about how Ukraine pays for its war with Russia when the foreign money it depends on arrives late.

How it got here. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and backed armed separatists in eastern Ukraine. On 24 February 2022 it launched a full-scale invasion. Ukraine has been fighting ever since. Its own tax revenue does not cover a war of that size. Since 2022 the difference has been made up by loans and grants from the European Union, the United States, other governments and the International Monetary Fund. Much of that money is paid in instalments, often with conditions attached, on the lenders' timetable. When an instalment is late, the government has to decide what to pay first.

The people involved. The prime minister runs the government and its budget. The Kyiv Post reports that Serhii Koretskyi holds the post. The president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is commander-in-chief and sets the country's war priorities. Foreign governments and institutions provide the money that is missing. European governments and the EU's own institutions are among the largest of them, which is why Le Figaro writes about pressure on Europe's support.

What is at stake. A budget that pays soldiers, pensions and public salaries first has less left for everything else. Projects are put off and spending is cut. Ukrainians who were not in any of the protected groups bear that cost at home. The plan also depends on creditors abroad: by the prime minister's own split, most of the gap is meant to be closed by Western partners, not by Ukraine.

Where it stands. On 28 September the prime minister set out the order in which bills will be paid. The same day, the president met him and his diplomats about defence funding. None of the reports we hold says when the delayed aid will arrive, or who delayed it.