EU committed additional EUR 24 bln of military support since beginning of 2025 – Costa

The EU has allocated an additional EUR 24 billion for military support from the beginning of 2025, the European Council will continue to provide full support to Ukraine, European Council President António Costa said.

"From our part we will continue to give full support to Ukraine. Member states have committed an additional EUR 24 billion of military support since the beginning of this year, and now the European Commission offered all member states more fiscal space to increase their support – and this support counts for the new NATO targets," Costa said during a joint conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and EU leaders in Denmark.

The President of the European Council said the Russian invasion of Ukraine remains a serious threat to international law, as Russia is an intercontinental country that threatens not only Europe but also the Pacific region, and also acts in coalition with countries such as North Korea or Iran.

In addition, Costa said he was deeply disappointed that Russia was not joining the efforts of "President Trump to achieve a just and lasting peace."

"While President Zelenskyy has already agreed on an unconditional ceasefire, Russia not only hasn’t agreed, but even increased the intensity of their aggression to Ukraine," Costa said.

He assured of continued pressure on Russia through sanctions. "Last week we prolonged all our sanctions for another six months and the 18th package of sanctions is underway," the President of the European Council said.

He said he was "very happy" with the European Commission's recent assessment of Ukraine's "impressive" reform performance "in such a difficult situation."

"And for sure we have reached the conditions to move forward with the ongoing negotiation process to the accession to the European Union," Costa said.