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The EU will set up a dedicated fund for Ukraine’s military over the next four years at a cost of up to 20 billion, according to five diplomats familiar with the plan.
The proposal does not include the EU paying directly for Ukrainian weapons. Instead, Brussels would help countries pay for their purchases and supply of items such as weapons, missiles and tanks. It would also help pay for training Ukrainian soldiers.
It’s a strategy the EU recently adopted after Russia annexed Ukraine. But this new proposal, made by the EU ambassador, will help the process.
For starters, the price will be a huge commitment for the EU, which could be increased almost five times the amount of 4 billion that the bloc has given so far to do the same thing last year plus.
It would also promote the EU’s sea reform, a self-explanatory peace project. Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the idea that the EU was helping to send weapons to the war zone would have been unthinkable. Now, it’s about to be saved for years to come.
Ironically (and perhaps logically), all of this is being done through an existing fund called the “European Peace Facility.”
Josep Borrell, EU High Commissioner, he pointed at a meeting of EU leaders last month.
“You have to make Ukraine capable of defending itself,” he said. “So the European Peace Facility in Ukraine, maybe it should be a new security fund for Ukraine.”
The proposed military fund is part of the EU’s efforts to demonstrate its long-term commitment to Ukraine. The EU’s diplomatic wing, the European External Action Service, has also drafted a plan – a first report and POLITICO – which presents a list of security measures that the EU will implement in Ukraine in the coming years.
It also comes on top of the EU’s decision to declare €50 billion in non-military aid to Ukraine between 2024 and 2027.
The new defense budget proposal was sent to EU countries on Monday for review, and EU foreign ministers will take it up on Thursday at a meeting in Brussels. The goal, said two of the delegates, is to approve the proposal in the fall.
Meanwhile, the EU has faced repeated setbacks in trying to approve additions to its arms fund in Ukraine and political infighting that has led to delays with Hungary throwing up roadblocks while building ties with Russia.
Investing €20 billion in funding will enable EU leaders to send a message to Moscow that they are ready to do whatever it takes to help Ukraine. Spread over four years, the fund will help the EU take a pot of €5 billion a year. These figures represent a ceiling, however, and are not intended as a guarantee that all will be used.
“Our aid to Ukraine in the military has now increased significantly, so that the money given to the European Peace Facility in Ukraine will end,” said an EU official, who, like the others, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the plans.
What the EU wants, the official said, is to make its military aid to Ukraine “known for a long time. So obviously we are talking about more money.”