EU to make monthly aid cash transfers to Ukraine of 1.5bln euros

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
21 Oct 2022 19:58

Cash transfers will be made on a regular, monthly basis by the EU, US, and international economic institutions.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen told reporters on Friday that beginning next year, the EU is planning to provide Ukraine with 1.5 billion euros ($1.46 billion) in monthly economic aid.

According to von der Leyen, Ukraine requested international donors to provide "a stable, reliable and predictable flow" of macroeconomic support.

She further added that Ukraine's conflict with Russia has had an enormous toll on the country's economy and an estimated four billion euros in grants or loans per month would guarantee the maintenance of basic government functions.

Cash transfers will be made on a regular, monthly basis by the EU, US, and international economic institutions.

During today's EU summit, EU leaders confirmed that they would quickly provide Ukraine with three billion euros in previous commitments that have been pending for months and called on the commission to design "a more structural solution."

According to the EU's President, this would see around "1.5 billion per month for Ukraine financed by the European Union. So this will give overall a figure of 18 billion for the next year, an amount Ukraine can count on and where there's a stable and reliable predictable flow of income."

"We have tasked the finance ministers to develop the appropriate mechanism. But it was important also to give the signal to Ukraine, that we very well know how important this reliable flow of income is."

Ukraine needs our support for as long as it takes, starting with the needs for next year.

We discussed how to meet Ukraine’s increasing needs, and tasked finance ministers to develop the appropriate mechanism.#EUCO
https://t.co/kAz6IIGCHP
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) October 21, 2022

The plan to provide Ukraine with monthly aid transfers was already announced earlier this month by anonymous sources to Bloomberg.

The sources informed Bloomberg that the US was pushing the EU to engage in this initiative despite the union struggling to fulfill previous commitments, namely the 3 billion euros mentioned above.

On Thursday, which was the first day of the summit, Ukraine's President Volodimir Zelensky told EU leaders that Russia had transformed his country's power grid into "a battlefield".

On October 12, he told the World Bank that Kiev requires $2 billion in targeted credits to rebuild the country’s electric energy infrastructure.

The result of such an outcome was a series of retaliatory attacks carried out by Moscow in response to Kiev's repetitive attempts to damage crucial Russian infrastructure.

The numerous attempts to destroy the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, the Kerch bridge explosion, the foiled attempt to damage Turkstream, and the numerous attacks on civilian buildings and infrastructure, including kindergartens, are just some of the many offenses Russia had to deal with.