EU ambassadors agree to allocate €5 bln for Ukraine military support

"The EU remains committed to providing long-term support for Ukraine, to ensure that Ukraine gets the military equipment it needs to defend itself," the committee reported on Х.

Since the beginning of Russia's full-fledged war, the EU has been providing Ukraine with substantial political, economic, financial, humanitarian and military assistance, the total amount of which has exceeded €85 billion over the past two years.

Given the need to increase military assistance to Ukraine, the EU top official Josep Borrell proposed that member states create a specialized fund to support Ukraine within the framework of the intergovernmental European Peace Fund in the amount of 5 billion euros for the current year.

This instrument will be one of the issues of the European Council, which will be held on March 21-22 in Brussels.

The EU already provides military assistance to Ukraine through the European Peace Fund (in particular, it reimburses member states for weapons provided to Ukraine), but it is provided in tranches that can be blocked by individual member states.

The bloc is moving from providing Ukraine with weapons from existing stocks to purchasing new ones, so the EU's foreign policy department has submitted a proposal to member states to reform the fund that provides this military support.