On June 24, the EU approved the first tranche of military aid to Ukraine in the amount of up to 1.4 billion euros, which will come from revenues from frozen Russian assets.
Points of attention
- The money is intended for the direct purchase of weapons for Ukraine, including ammunition and air defense systems.
- Hungary blocked the payments, but according to the decision of the EU Council, it cannot prevent their transfer.
- Hungary continues to block other payments to the Armed Forces as compensation for previously purchased weapons for Ukraine.
- The final amount of the tranche is still unknown, but it is estimated to be between EUR 1.2 billion and EUR 1.4 billion.
Income from the assets of the Russian Federation will be used for weapons for Ukraine
As noted, the money is being sent to Ukraine through the Ukraine Aid Fund (UAF), but Hungary has blocked the payments so far.
The EU Council's legal service now argues that Budapest cannot stop these payments, having abstained from voting earlier this year to establish the Fund. Officials said the bypass is allowed because the funds do not come from EU taxpayers.
The money will not go to compensation, as is usually the case with the Armed Forces, but to the direct purchase of weapons, including ammunition and air defense systems. A quarter of the amount will be used for procurement in Ukrainian industry.
According to an internal message from the EU Council, the countries had until 11:00 a.m. to express their opinion, and none voted against it. The decision did not require unanimity, so Hungary could not block it.
Despite today's agreement, Hungary continues to block the payment of 6.6 billion euros under the program for the Armed Forces as partial compensation for weapons purchased from Ukraine. According to one of the diplomats, Budapest is "furious" about what happened today.
The final amount of proceeds from the frozen assets going to Kyiv is still unclear, but diplomats say it ranges between 1.2 billion euros and 1.4 billion euros.
An official announcement is expected later that day at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
What preceded it
The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said before the meeting that next week, the EU will allocate the first part of 2.5 billion euros from the revenues from the Russian Federation's frozen assets to support Ukraine.
Earlier, he said the European Union had developed a legal way to bypass Hungary's veto on arms purchases for Ukraine using profits from frozen Russian assets this year.
