Before the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine was one of the 15 socialist republics. Along with Belarus, the Russian Federation, and the USSR, Ukraine is one of the founders of the United Nations. Ukraine has gone through transformations from a command-administrative to a market system in 30 years. The driving force behind this development was the national democratic forces, the leaders of which were former dissidents of the USSR. One of the main factors of market transformations in Ukraine is the national private banking business. In the conditions of Russia’s direct military aggression against Ukraine in 2022, the banking business of Ukraine has shown its institutional capacity and is one of the stabilizing factors of society. Thanks to the integration of Ukraine’s banking business into the global financial system, millions of Ukrainian refugees have the opportunity to use their accumulated funds in the national currency abroad. The purpose of this article is to analyze the impact of the banking sector of Ukraine on the country’s democratic development, and the contribution of the banking system to countering Russian aggression. The article considers further ways of development of the banking system of Ukraine in the post-war period.