EU agrees on €6.6 billion for Ukraine’s defense

European Union member states have agreed on the terms for allocating €6.6 billion from the European Peace Facility (EPF) to support Ukraine.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas announced this on the social media platform X, Ukrinform reports.

“EU Member States have agreed on the terms for releasing €6.6 billion European Peace Facility funds for Ukraine. That’s good news for Ukraine and bad news for Russia,” Kallas said.

According to her, the allocation includes €900 million to fund the EU Military Assistance Mission for Ukraine (EUMAM Ukraine). Another €1 billion will go toward new joint procurement of defense equipment.

The bulk of the package – €4.7 billion – is intended to reimburse member states for military equipment and weapons already provided to Ukraine. Kallas emphasized that some EU countries have already announced their intention to channel the reimbursement shares they receive directly into further support for Ukraine.

The EU’s foreign policy chief also stressed that the Kremlin’s attempts to intimidate Europe through hybrid attacks are producing the opposite effect.

“Moscow’s hybrid attacks try to intimidate Europe into scaling back its support for Ukraine. Europe is doing the opposite,” the diplomat concluded.

As reported, the European Peace Facility (EPF) is an off-budget EU instrument established in March 2021 to finance actions under the Common Foreign and Security Policy, including conflict prevention and strengthening international security.

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the EU used the fund for the first time in its history to supply lethal weapons and military equipment to a third country under attack.

The fund is financed through contributions from EU member states in proportion to their GDP. The EPF is used both to partially reimburse EU countries for the cost of weapons transferred to Ukraine from their own arsenals and to finance joint procurement and military training missions. Due to prolonged disagreements and the positions of individual countries, the allocation of a significant portion of the fund’s resources had remained blocked for a long time, requiring additional negotiations to agree on the terms of their disbursement.