Proceedings of the International scientific and practical conference ―New York Global Science Conference 2026‖ (May 18-20, 2026) / Publisher website: www.naukainfo.com. – New York, USA, 2026. - 322 p.

44 It is worth noting that for a modern state, in peacetime, the key priority of budget policy is expenditures aimed at social protection and social security, especially for vulnerable groups of the population, development/improvement of social infrastructure and investments in human capital. These features form the characteristics of the expenditures of the "social budget", which, as a rule, corresponds to the social policy of the state and is aimed at improving social development. In fact, the composition and structure of budget expenditures is determined by the economic content and tasks facing the country at the current stage, and is an indicator of the state's socio-economic policy. For Ukraine, as the epicenter of the war, uncertainty has become a powerful challenge and a source of destabilizing processes that have spread to all spheres of public life, including the formation and implementation of budget policy. The war affected business activity and, accordingly, economic activity, the increase in budget expenditures on defense, the need to finance the social bloc within the appropriate parameters, in particular, social security and protection of the population, with a significant decline in tax revenues. In conditions of war and increasing uncertainty, the formation and implementation of budget policy is a rather complex and responsible task for the government. Since priorities have changed and it is necessary to ensure a balance between meeting the financial needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), restoring the destroyed energy and critical infrastructure, sectors of social interest, in particular education, economic activity, etc. The need for significant budget expenditures to support the AFU has significantly limited the government's ability to invest in other important sectors of the national economy. Thus, among the main characteristics of budgetary policy under martial law are: - increase in spending on defense and security of the country; - increase in the budget deficit; - increase in public debt; - need to increase tax revenues due to the need for ever-growing military needs;