Ukraine receives EUR 4 billion from EU at expense of frozen Russian assets – Ministry of Finance
The state budget of Ukraine on Wednesday received a tranche of EUR4 billion from the EU under the G7 Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration for Ukraine (ERA) initiative from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine has said.
"In general, within the framework of the ERA instrument, the Ministry of Finance has already attracted EUR 14 billion from the European Union out of the planned EUR 18.1 billion. It is expected that Ukraine will receive the remaining funds from the EU by the end of 2025," the Ministry of Finance said in a press release.
In March of this year, European Commissioner for the Economy Valdis Dombrovskis announced that this year the EU plans to allocate EUR 30.5 billion to Ukraine, in particular, EUR 12.5 billion under the Ukraine Facility program and EUR 18 billion under the ERA mechanism: the first EUR 3 billion was allocated in January, in March-November at EUR 1 billion per month, and in December EUR 6 billion.
At the same time, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on September 10 the decision to accelerate the allocation of EUR6 billion to Ukraine under the ERA program and plans to allocate part of this money to the purchase of drones.
The attracted funding can be directed to priority state budget expenditures in the social sphere, military and reconstruction, the Ministry of Finance indicated in a release.
"Since February 2022, the European Union has been the largest provider of direct budget assistance to Ukraine – EUR 62.5 billion. ERA funds have become an important tool for ensuring budgetary needs in 2025. Further use of frozen Russian assets for Ukraine's needs remains on the agenda of meetings with European colleagues," Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko emphasized.
The G7 ERA mechanism of up to $50 billion provides for the allocation of a loan to Ukraine, which is repaid from the profits received from frozen Russian sovereign assets.
In 2024-2025, the G7 countries and the EU have already provided Ukraine with almost $28 billion in financing under the ERA.
On September 10, European Commission President von der Leyen announced the idea of a "reparation loan" to Ukraine at the expense of the already principal amount of frozen Russian assets. Currently, this idea is being actively discussed and its practical implementation is being worked out: we are talking about issuing bonds worth EUR 130-140 billion secured by frozen Russian assets and directing this money to Ukraine.