8 billion euros for Ukraine: what will EU's support look like in future, — source
A high-ranking EU official talked about plans to help Ukraine.
The EU has been with Ukraine and supported internal reforms and countering russian aggression since 2013-2014. Today's events show that those who claimed that Putin would not stop in the east and wanted to seize all of Ukraine and not only Ukraine were right. This is a reason to consider and draw conclusions in the future — this is the opinion of a high-ranking EU official who asked to remain anonymous.
According to the high-ranking official, granting Ukraine the status of EU member state, which does not save lives, but gives hope, was an important decision.
Currently, the main support component is financial support for Ukraine during this difficult time. EU financial support is formed from various sources and directed to multiple needs. In total, 1.2 billion euros of macro-financial assistance was provided to Ukraine, and another 8 billion is planned.
The high-ranking official said there are different positions among the countries on the conditions and how to provide further assistance, but there is an understanding that support is necessary.
The European Investment and Development Bank confirmed 1.6 billion in aid for Ukrainian businesses. In addition, the cancellation of customs duties for Ukrainian exports was considerable support, especially for exporting agricultural products.
The EU spent 425 million euros directly on supporting the Ukrainian citizens.
As for military aid, this year, for the first time in its history, the EU has a mechanism for allocating funds from the military budget to support another country's army. And Ukraine received 31 million euros for armaments. It is worth noting that Ukraine is provided with only those weapons requested by the Ukrainian side.
Support is not given easily; the cost of energy, fuel, and in general, the life of EU citizens is increasing. Despite this, the EU wants and will support Ukraine.
The EU plans to invest more actively in green energy to accelerate the transition away from russian gas and oil. In addition, even without official sanctions, EU citizens independently decided to reduce the level of consumption of energy resources from the russian federation.
"We are filling gas storage facilities and, if necessary, this will help Ukraine during the heating season," the senior official said.
The issue of supporting Ukraine is the EU's top priority. There, they believe that Ukrainian politicians are doing a great job by keeping the Ukrainian issue high on the informational agenda of the day. "Earlier, the issue of corruption was devastating for Ukraine's reputation, but currently, there is great progress in this direction, and the world sees it," the source adds.
In the West, Ukraine quickly won the information war. The EU believes that russia was terribly prepared for an information war — they did not plan for it. However, from a global perspective, the situation is worse, especially in Africa. Because for the countries of Africa, russia is not a colonizer, so they see it as "better than the West."
A separate victory for 2022, the official calls the fact that Japan, Australia, South Korea, and other democratic countries that did not join the sanctions in 2014 imposed their sanctions now.
