Belarusian parliament member Aliaksandr Shpakouski spoke about the link between the growth in the number of millionaires and war profiteering on SBTV on Oct. 9, 2025:
"The number of millionaires, meaning people who registered an income above 1 million hryvnias, [has grown]. We understand that this is the threshold, but in reality, there's huge money there. It increased by 64% based on last year's results. And overall, Ukrainian millionaires paid only $6 billion in taxes. We understand that Ukraine has developed a very narrow segment, unlike all the rest of the population, which is, let's say, in a socially disadvantaged position for the most part."
According to official statistics, the number of millionaires in Ukraine in 2024 compared with 2023 did indeed grow — from 11,000 to more than 17,000. However, these are hryvnia millionaires. An annual income of 1 million hryvnias is less than $25,000. In other words, anyone who earns more than $2,000 a month becomes a millionaire in Ukraine.
In total, Ukrainian millionaires paid more than 8 billion hryvnias in taxes. That's about $200 million, not $6 billion as Shpakouski said. He apparently confused hryvnias with dollars.
People earning $2,000 a month are not considered rich even by Belarusian tax authorities' standards. In Belarus, the threshold for high-income earners is an annual income of more than 220,000 rubles (about $74,000 at the exchange rate on Sept. 15, 2025). For such taxpayers, an increased tax on excess income was introduced in 2024, a category that includes those who earn more than $5,000 a month.
According to estimates by Belarusian tax officials, there are about 10,000 people with excess income in the country.
