Ursula von der Leyen arrives in Kyiv with €3.5 billion in fresh financial aid
SMA NEWS – KYIV
Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Kyiv by train on Monday morning to mark the third anniversary of the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine and as Donald Trump’s big push for negotiations rattles European allies, stoking fears a rushed deal could leave the entire continent vulnerable to the Kremlin’s expansionism.
The president of the European Commission joined other Western leaders, such as Spain’s Pedro Sánchez, Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, Lithuania’s Gitanas Nausėda and Canada’s Justin Trudeau, in a special summit hosted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky . One by one, they all spoke to reaffirm their solidarity with the country under invasion and made new pledges of financial and military support.
In her remarks, von der Leyen unveiled a €3.5 billion package of EU financial assistance to inject additional liquidity into Ukraine’s strained budget and facilitate, among other things, the purchase of military equipment from its domestic industry.
The €3.5 billion is an advance on a larger €50-billion assistance fund that the European Union established in early 2024, dubbed “the Ukraine Facility”.
While Brussels has managed to cover Ukraine’s financial needs for the entire year, the supply of weaponry after the summer remains uncertain.
“We must speed up the immediate delivery of weapons and ammunition. And this will be at the heart of our work in the coming weeks,” von der Leyen told a group of media outlets, including Euronews, on her way to the city.
“We believe in a free and sovereign Ukraine on its path towards the European Union.”
Von der Leyen also announced an initiative to integrate Ukraine and Moldova into the bloc’s electricity market by the end of the year.
She is joined in Kyiv by her College of European Commissioners, who are scheduled to meet with their counterparts from the Ukrainian government to deepen ties.
The visit is the ninth von der Leyen has made to Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion, but comes against a sharply different backdrop from her previous trips.
European capitals are nervously watching as Donald Trump’s attempts to launch a peace process between Ukraine and Russia have upended three years of transatlantic policy.
