EU agrees on €5b package to fund arms for Ukraine

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - A woman stands near the ‘Wall of Remembrance of the Fallen for Ukraine’, a wall with portraits of Ukrainian soldiers who died in the Russian-Ukrainian war, as the St Michael’s Cathedral is seen in the background, in the centre of Kyiv. — AFP pic

BRUSSELS, March 14 — EU member states yesterday agreed to add €5 billion (RM26 billion) to a central fund to pay for weapons sent to Ukraine.

The move provides a welcome boost for Kyiv as support from its other major backer, the United States, wavers and its outgunned forces struggle to hold back Russia.

Belgium, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said ambassadors from the bloc’s 27 nations had agreed “in principle” on the plan to support arms supplies to Kyiv in 2024 with €5 billion.

In the wake of Moscow’s 2022 invasion, the European Union for the first time agreed to fund weapons deliveries to a country at war.

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Since then it has committed €6.1 billion from its central European Peace Facility mainly to reimburse part of the cost of arms sent by member states to Ukraine.

The push to bolster the EU fund by an extra €5 billion was delayed for months amid wrangling from Germany and France.

Berlin insisted its bilateral support for Ukraine should be offset against its contribution and Paris demanded only weapons produced in Europe should be reimbursed.

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Diplomats said Germany — the largest contributor to the fund — had struck a compromise with Brussels to offset a percentage of its own bilateral support against the fund.

They said France was also satisfied by a commitment that countries would prioritise purchases from European defence firms, but could look outside the EU if certain ammunition or systems were not readily available.

Overall since the Kremlin unleashed its full-scale war, Brussels says around €28 billion have been spent from member states and EU coffers to support Ukraine’s military.

The announcement of the latest funds for Ukraine comes as Kyiv’s forces are under pressure along the front line in the face of ammunition shortages.

The United States on Tuesday announced a fresh US$300 million (RM1.4 billion) weapons package for Ukraine, but a further US$60 billion in funding remains stalled by Republicans in Congress.

Warnings have grown in Europe that a failure to keep up support for Kyiv could see it ultimately defeated and that an emboldened Kremlin might then attack other countries.

The EU is pushing to bolster weapons and ammunition production by its defence industry, but two years into the war it is still struggling to ramp up output.

The bloc is set to fall well short on a promise it made a year ago to supply Ukraine with a million artillery shells by this month.

Czech Republic has in the meantime spearheaded an 18-nation coalition to buy artillery shells from outside Europe and this month Prague promised to start sending the first of 300,000 shells to Kyiv within weeks.

Meanwhile, Russia has stepped up its arms production by putting its economy on a war footing and has received major deliveries of weapons from Iran and North Korea.

EU leaders are set to discuss efforts to boost Europe’s industry and support Ukraine at a summit in Brussels next week. — AFP