FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian soldiers prepare to fire missiles from a homemade launcher, March 5, 2024 © Jose Colon / Anadolu via Getty Images
The bloc’s members have agreed to add €5 billion to a fund that reimburses nations for their assistance to Kiev FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian soldiers prepare to fire missiles from a homemade launcher, March 5, 2024 © Jose Colon / Anadolu via Getty Images
EU nations have sought to demonstrate their support for Kiev and send a message to Russia by approving €5 billion ($5.5 billion) in additional funding to Ukraine.
Members of the bloc agreed on Wednesday to put more money into their European Peace Facility (EPF) fund, which reimburses countries that send aid to Kiev. The initiative finally passed a vote in Brussels after months of negotiations over contentious issues, such as France’s demand that weapons for Ukraine be bought in Europe and Germany’s insistence that members’ direct donations to Kiev be taken into account when calculating their EPF obligations.
“The message is clear,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said after Wednesday’s vote. “We will support Ukraine with whatever it takes to prevail.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba also celebrated the vote, saying it was “yet another powerful and timely demonstration of European unity in achieving our common victory.”
The EPF has already underpinned over €6 billion in Ukraine aid. EU ambassadors reached a compromise on the “buy European” mandate by allowing for exceptions to the rule when weaponry can’t be obtained on the continent quickly enough to meet Ukraine’s needs. That would presumably allow donors to be reimbursed under a Czech-led initiative to buy artillery shells outside of Europe.
The initiative comes at a time when Washington, the biggest funder of the Ukraine conflict, has run out of money for Kiev and is struggling to get additional spending approved by lawmakers. Republicans in the US House of Representatives have opposed President Joe Biden’s request for over $60 billion in additional Ukraine funding, saying his administration is only prolonging the fighting without offering a blueprint for peace.
There has also been increasing controversy over Ukraine aid within the EU. The bloc approved a long-delayed €50 billion funding package for Kiev last month, after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban dropped his veto threat due to threats of economic retribution from other EU heads of state. Orban has argued that Ukraine can’t defeat Russian forces and that EU sanctions have caused more harm to the bloc’s members than to Moscow. (RT)
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