Verkhovna Rada

The Rada approved the EU's €90bn loan agreement on 28 May 2026. Since then its slower votes have become the brake. The European Commission said on 2 September that a revenue-mobilisation law still stuck in Parliament was one of twelve conditions for the next payment of about €3.7bn.

On 2 October Brussels sent €2.9bn, the eighth Ukraine Facility instalment, of which €800m was the first budget-support payment from the €90bn loan; the loan's defence side had paid out since July. the Commission has not explained the shortfall. The Rada also now holds the 2027 draft budget, which gives defence 4.885tn hryvnias, nearly 44% of economic output.

Zelenskyy handed Yevhen Khmara, then head of the SBU security service and a former commander of its Alpha unit, the defence minister's duties on 16 July 2026. Several deputies argued that the law barred a serving security officer from the post.

The Rada settled the question on 19 August, confirming Khmara by 312 votes to two with no abstentions. He told deputies he stood before them as a civilian and had left military service under Article 26 of the military service law. The margin showed a Parliament that still closes ranks behind the president's wartime appointments once their legal objections are answered.