As the 1,000th day of the war in Ukraine approaches and winter approaches, the allies’ concerns about the worsening situation of the population in that country are growing. In this context, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen once again visited Kiev to announce a new multi-million dollar aid package for Ukraine. At a press conference with President Volodymyr Zelensky, he announced an additional loan of 35 billion euros that will be paid with frozen Russian assets.
“The Commission is proposing an exceptional macro-financial loan of up to €35 billion. This financial support is crucial to meet Ukraine’s urgent budgetary needs, which have increased considerably in the face of the intensification and prolongation of Russian aggression, including under the IMF’s Extended Financing Facility agreement,” the EU government notes in a statement.
The loans will be channelled through a Loan Cooperation Facility with Ukraine that will help the EU and G7 partners provide loans of up to €45 billion to Ukraine. This was one of the conclusions of the G7 leaders’ meeting in Italy in July. “As Ukraine continues to face unprecedented challenges due to increasing Russian aggression, this proposal underlines the EU’s unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and economic resilience,” the statement said.
The EU will provide a large part of this amount and the rest will come from contributions from the G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States).
The plan must be approved by the EU Council, where all 27 are represented, and by the European Parliament. On Thursday, the European Parliament voted on a resolution calling for the lifting of restrictions on Ukraine using Western weapons to attack Russian territory. Some countries have already given their permission.
The new loan comes on top of the €118.3 billion that the EU has mobilised for humanitarian, financial and military assistance to Ukraine (€45.6 billion from the EU budget for budget support, crisis response, economic aid, recovery and humanitarian aid, as well as loans and budgetary guarantees; €12.2 billion in bilateral aid from the 27 EU Member States; €43.5 billion in military aid, including €17 billion to help people fleeing Ukraine;
Von der Leyen took advantage of her trip to deliver a batch of electric generators and other equipment to Ukrainian firefighters to use in emergency work, in one of the first acts of her eighth visit to the Ukrainian capital since the start of the war, EFE reports. “When Russian bombs fall, state firefighters rush to put out the flames and rescue people. We support them with electric generators and emergency equipment,” Von der Leyen wrote on her social media account X.
Despite these efforts, High Representative Josep Borrell acknowledged that the EU had failed in its plans to supply arms to Ukraine and had not reached the target of providing one million projectiles.
