UNITED24 Has Raised $3.9 Billion, Over 90% of It Going to a Defense Account

The website of “UNITED24,” the Ukrainian government’s donation platform, shows a cumulative total, as of September 18, 2026, of $3,930,962,434, or 161,219,345,468 hryvnias. The count began on May 5, 2022.

Launched in May 2022, a little over two months after Russia’s full-scale invasion, on President Zelensky’s initiative, this platform lets donors choose what their money goes toward. Where does the money go, who spends it, and what is disclosed? This article looks at the Cabinet of Ministers’ decisions and the weekly reports UNITED24 publishes.

The Money Goes into Accounts at the National Bank of Ukraine

According to UNITED24’s explanation, donations are sent 100% to official accounts at the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) by category chosen, and allocated to the responsible ministry. Money is not mixed between accounts, and, it says, can be used only for the category the donor chose.

This mechanism’s basis is Cabinet of Ministers Decision No. 472 of April 19, 2022. The “UNITED24” account usage procedure attached to this decision (fully revised by Decision No. 829 of August 8, 2023) designates the following six accounts opened at the National Bank as “UNITED24 accounts.” This is the version as of September 2026.

The procedure treats money going into these accounts as voluntary contributions (donations) from “private-law or public-law individuals or legal entities.” That means the scheme envisions payments not only from individuals but from companies and public bodies as well. The Ministry of Digital Transformation stated in an announcement on May 6, 2025, that donors have ranged from individuals to multinational corporations and foreign governments.

Who Decides How the Money Is Used, and How

Money in the defense account is used by the Ministry of Defense. Under the procedure, with the Ministry of Defense’s consent, it can also be sent to the ministry’s state enterprise, the Defense Procurement Agency, or to oblast military administrations, to make procurements matching units’ needs.

For the five non-defense accounts, a committee is set up to decide how the money is allocated. The procedure requires that representatives of the responsible ministry and its subordinate bodies make up less than half of each committee’s members, that committee meetings be open, and that minutes of decisions be published on each ministry’s website.

The disclosure mechanism is likewise set out in the procedure. Each ministry reports its cumulative spending weekly to the Ministry of Digital Transformation, which compiles this and publishes it weekly on the UNITED24 website. For the non-defense accounts, the State Treasury Service compiles each ministry’s reports into a monthly report submitted to the Verkhovna Rada, the President, the Cabinet of Ministers, the Accounting Chamber, and the Ministry of Finance. The UNITED24 website states that the defense and healthcare categories are audited by Deloitte, and the others by BDO.

How Much Has Gone into Each Account

The Ministry of Digital Transformation announced on May 6, 2025, that UNITED24 had raised more than $1.4 billion over three years, with over 91% going to defense-related categories.

The report dated September 18, 2026, lists, by category, the amounts entering the National Bank accounts day by day. Summing the defense report’s daily inflows for this article gives a total of about 155.1 billion hryvnias from May 5, 2022, to September 18, 2026 — about 96% of the overall total the site displays. By the same method, healthcare came to about 3.5 billion hryvnias, the restoration fund about 980 million hryvnias, and demining about 330 million hryvnias.

Inflows into the defense account vary greatly by year. This article’s tally shows about 96.7 billion hryvnias flowing in during 2025 alone, with daily inflows exceeding 10 billion hryvnias on three days (October 16 and 17, and December 30, 2025). The largest, December 30, 2025, was about 19.2 billion hryvnias. The report does not record who these inflows came from.

What Is Reported as the Spending

Separately from inflows, the reports include tables of expenditure. The main figures by category, from the report dated September 18, 2026, are as follows.

As the education line shows, UNITED24’s accounts receive not only individual donations but funding from international organizations as well. The range of money coming in is broader than the term “donation platform” might suggest.

A Caution When Reading the Reports

The reports themselves note cautions for reading them. The defense and healthcare spending tables state that “the figures are preliminary and may change during procurement and contracting” and that “spending on similar categories of items is grouped together to prevent disclosing information that could benefit the enemy.” This is why about 86% of defense spending is grouped into the single line “special-purpose military equipment.”

Another point is that the inflow figures include exchange-rate differences. The reports explain that it can take up to three business days for a donation to reach the National Bank account, and that the inflow figures reflect that exchange-rate difference. Donating in dollars still accumulates in the account as a hryvnia-denominated amount.

UNITED24’s reporting is the government’s own reporting on itself. As an independent check, there is the audit by the firms the site names, but this article has not read the audit reports themselves. How far Ukrainian and Japanese organizations disclose information when choosing where to donate is covered in How Far Do Aid Organizations Disclose Their Information?.