EU member states on Wednesday agreed to add €five billion to a central fund to pay for weapons sent to Ukraine.
The move provides a welcome boost for Kyiv as support from its other major backer, the United States, wavers and its outgunned forces struggle to hold back Russia.
Belgium, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, said ambassadors from the bloc's 27 nations had agreed "in principle" on the plan to support arms supplies to Kyiv in 2024 with five billion euros.
We made it: #Coreper agreed on the #UkraineAssistanceFund.
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) March 13, 2024
The Fund will allow us to step up our military support to #Ukraine with another €5 billion.
The message is clear: we will support #Ukraine with whatever it takes to prevail.#EuropeanPeaceFacility
In the wake of Moscow's 2022 invasion, the European Union for the first time agreed to fund weapons deliveries to a country at war.
Since then it has committed €6.1 billion from its centralmainly to reimburse part of the cost of arms sent by member states to Ukraine.
The push to bolster the EU fund by an extra €five billion was delayed for months amid wrangling from Germany and France.
But according to Politico, "a big chunk of the contributions to the Fund will not actually be in the form of new cash.
"In fact," the magazine writes, "EU countries can discount their bilateral weapons shipments as “contributions” to the fund. Germany has already said that it won’t pay €1.2 billion but will instead count its own arms shipments as its contribution."
Compromise
Berlin insisted its bilateral support for Ukraine should be offset against its contribution, and Paris demanded that only weapons produced in Europe should be reimbursed.
Diplomats said Germany, the largest contributor to the fund, had struck a compromise with Brussels to offset a percentage of its own bilateral support against the fund.
They said France was also satisfied by a commitment that countries would prioritise purchases from European defence firms, but could look outside the EU if certain ammunition or systems were not readily available.
Overall since the Kremlin unleashed its war, Brussels says around 28 billion euros have been spent from member states and EU coffers to support Ukraine's military.
Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmygal welcomed the additional money.
"Thank you Josep Borrell for your unwavering support to Ukraine on the road to victory," he posted on X, referring to the EU's foreign affairs chief.
On Thursday evening at 20:00, France's President Emmanuel Macron will talk on national television about France's role in supporting Ukraine, after the French parliament voted in favor of his Ukraine strategy earlier this week.
(With newswires)
