The 27 EU member countries reached an agreement on Wednesday to add 5 billion euros ($7.37 billion) to a fund aimed at financing the purchase of weapons for Ukraine, which has been demanding for months more ammunition against Russian forces.
” Agreement ! », announced on X the Belgian presidency of the Council of the EU. “EU ambassadors agreed on the principle of reforming the European Peace Facility (EFF) to support Ukraine with a budget of 5 billion euros (7.37 billion dollars) for 2024,” she added.
After a little more than two years of war, the Ukrainian army is short of manpower and in need of munitions and air defense systems to contain an offensive Russian army.
The EU has already spent more than six billion euros ($8.85 billion) under its European Peace Facility, intended mainly to reimburse arms deliveries made by certain member states to Ukraine.
The decision announced Wednesday was taken after weeks of negotiations due to opposition from France and Germany.
Paris wanted to obtain guarantees on the “ made in Europe » weapons financed by European funds, and Germany had expressed its reluctance regarding this European mechanism, preferring bilateral aid.
According to diplomats, Germany has obtained that its direct contribution to Ukraine – it has promised eight billion euros ($11.8 billion) this year – is partly deducted from its financial support to the European aid fund in kyiv. Berlin is the largest contributor to this fund, the budget of which is supplemented by member states according to their gross domestic product (GDP).
France, for its part, obtained, according to the same source, that “priority” be given to the European defense industry when a Member State places an order for weapons, unless it proves too difficult to obtain them. within reasonable time limits.
28 billion
In total, the EU and its member states have already spent some 28 billion euros ($41.9 billion) in military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded the country on February 24, 2022.
Fears of Ukraine’s defeat by Russia due to lack of sufficient weapons have grown in recent weeks, after several advances by Russian forces on the battlefield.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged his Western allies at the end of February to deliver their military aid to his country “on time”.
American aid amounting to more than 60 billion euros ($88.48 billion) is still blocked in Congress due to the reluctance of Republican elected officials supporting former President Donald Trump.
However, the White House announced Tuesday $300 million ($404.14 million) in aid for Ukraine. It includes anti-aircraft missiles, ammunition and artillery shells.
The EU, for its part, has been striving for two years to develop its defense industry to better meet Ukrainian needs.
The European Commission presented last week a new defense strategy, which aims to develop cooperation between Member States and guarantee orders to European manufacturers.
The 27 are due to discuss it at a European summit next week in Brussels.
The EU promised last year to supply one million shells to Ukraine by the end of March, but European officials acknowledged that target would not be met. However, they assured that it would be done by the end of the year.
Russia, for its part, put its economy on a war footing and received hundreds of thousands of shells from North Korea.