The Wall Street Journal has learned from its insiders that the European Union is starting work on a new plan to unblock tens of billions of dollars to increase the amount of military aid to Ukraine.
The EU plans to increase military aid for AFU
According to journalists, official Brussels is aware that the lack of support for Ukraine can have a catastrophic effect on the battlefield, so it is looking for ways to increase military aid.
If approved, the plan provides for the return of more than 20 billion euros of EU funds to member states for the tens of billions of euros of military aid they will provide to Ukraine over the next 4 years.
As mentioned earlier, even after February 24, 2022, the EU paid out 5.5 billion euros through the European Peace Fund (EPF) to member states supplying Kyiv with weapons, ammunition, tanks and anti-aircraft missiles, mostly from their stocks.
However, the pro-Russian prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, has been blocking any payments from the fund to member countries for the past year and demanding unrelated concessions from official Kyiv.
What is also important to understand is that some EU members have already exhausted their reserves to such a level that they cannot provide significant new amounts of aid to Ukraine's armed forces.
EU wants to create a special military fund for Ukraine
Against the background of all these problems, the leadership of the bloc came up with the idea of creating a special military fund for Ukraine
It would absorb some of the EPF's remaining assets and be replenished by €5 billion annually from 2024 to 2027.
The idea is to use the money to compensate countries for jointly purchasing military aid, such as ammunition, drones and air defense missiles, to provide to Ukraine.
According to the publication's insiders, the rest of the money will be used to pay for the EU military training program for Ukraine.
