EU may allocate up to €9bn for weapons to Ukraine using proceeds from frozen Russian assets
The European Union may allocate up to €9 billion for military aid to Ukraine in 2025 as part of assistance funded through proceeds derived from frozen Russian assets.
Source: European Pravda
Details: The conclusions of the 20 March EU summit mentioned "the military needs component of the G7 ERA initiative" among the possible ways to finance Ukraine's military needs.
This refers to a loan mechanism under which the European Union will provide Ukraine with €18.1 billion in 2025 through the taxation of profits from frozen Russian assets.
"One of the diplomats representing a major EU national told European Pravda that under the terms of the G7 ERA loans secured by the income generated by frozen Russian assets, Ukraine could allocate up to €9 billion for military needs, half of the amount announced for 2025," European Pravda noted.
Meanwhile, the article notes that it is not yet clear what the Ukrainian government's plans are for this €18.1 billion.
Previously:
The discussion of the ERA mechanism comes as the European Union criticises the plan of its chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas, to allocate billions of euros for weapons to Ukraine, citing the lack of specific implementation mechanisms.
"However, Kallas' initiative isn't dead either. The next substantive discussion on it at the political level will take place at an informal meeting of EU defence ministers in Warsaw on 2-3 April," the article reads.
Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Serbian farmers vow to oppose Rio Tinto lithium project even after EU labels it strategic
GORNJE NEDELJICE, Serbia (Reuters) -Zlatko Kokanovic, a farmer from Serbia's Jadar region, is determined to stop development of a Rio Tinto lithium project, identified this week as strategic by the European Commission as it aims to cut dependency on China for mineral resources. Lithium is a key component in batteries for electric vehicles and mobile devices. The mine in the Jadar valley would eventually meet 90% of Europe's lithium needs should it go ahead. But like thousands of protesters, including many other farmers, who have sought to block development of the project in recent years, Kokanovic is worried about pollution of farmland in a region where a majority of people live off agriculture. "There are some things the money cannot buy," Kokanovic, a father of five children who is one of the largest milk producers in Gornje Nedeljice and a leading activist in the region, told Reuters. "I want to tell them (Rio Tinto) not to try to develop the mine or there will be unrest," he added. Rio Tinto has not given a start date for the project, which is expected to produce 58,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate annually, but has pledged to develop the mine cleanly. "The project will be delivered to the highest levels of transparency, to the highest levels of environmental protection and human rights standards," said Chad Blewitt, Rio Tinto's managing director for the Jadar project. "The European Union and European Commission never substitute, they never sacrifice those high standards." Blewitt had told Reuters on Wednesday that the company is revising the cost of the project. Rio Tinto's lithium project has been contested by green groups for years and sparked massive street protests in EU-candidate Serbia in 2022. In 2021 and 2022, Serbian environmentalists collected 30,000 signatures in a petition demanding that parliament enact legislation to halt lithium exploration in the country. The government revoked all Rio Tinto's exploration licences in 2022, before the Constitutional Court overturned the decision last year and reinstated them. Government officials say the mine will boost Serbia's economy. How protesters can stop a project that has domestic and international approval is unclear. But recent student protests in Serbia, where hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets and succeeded in collapsing the government, show the strength of civil society in the Balkan country. Kokanovic remains determined. 'My message to them is not to even try (to excavate lithium in Jadar), unless they want this government to be toppled fast."
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Germany's Merz survives Trump test, despite Ukraine differences
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz came through his Oval Office encounter with Donald Trump relatively unscathed Thursday -- despite differences over Ukraine as the US president said it might be better to let Moscow and Kyiv fight it out like children. A month into his job, Merz unleashed a charm offensive on the 78-year-old Trump, presenting him with a framed copy of the birth certificate of his grandfather Frederick, who was born in Germany in 1869. Merz also hailed Trump as being the "key person in the world" when it came to ending the Ukraine war, saying the US leader could "really do that now by putting pressure on Russia." It was a backhanded way of urging Trump to overcome his aversion to putting sanctions on Russia over its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, as the more than three-year-old war grinds on. The polite meeting showed that the conservative German leader had done his homework as he sought to avoid ambushes like those that Trump unleashed on Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and South Africa's president. But they did not see eye to eye on everything. - 'Fighting in a park' - Trump -- who spoke to Russian leader Vladimir Putin a day earlier -- said it might be better to let the two sides fight it out, comparing the war that has left thousands dead and swathes of Ukraine in ruins to a children's brawl. "Sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy. They hate each other, and they're fighting in a park, and you try and pull them apart," Trump told reporters. "Sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while." Trump said however that he had urged Putin not to retaliate after Ukraine launched daring drone attacks on its airbases, destroying several nuclear capable bombers. "I said 'don't do it,'" Trump told reporters, adding that Putin had told him he had no choice but to respond and it was "not going to be pretty." Trump did make a series of off-color references to the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II -- still a deeply sensitive subject in modern-day Germany. Praising Merz for Germany raising its defense spending in line with his demands for NATO members to cough up, Trump said he was not sure World War II US general Douglas MacArthur would have agreed. Then, referring to the upcoming 80th anniversary of the allied D-Day landings that led to the end of the war, Trump said: "That was not a pleasant day for you?" Merz, 69, calmly replied: "This was the liberation of my country from Nazi dictatorship. We know what we owe you." - Tariffs deal possible - Merz avoided other possible pitfalls as Trump spent much of his time on a lengthy discourse against his billionaire former advisor Elon Musk. Topics like US tariffs on the EU and the prospect of a trade deal barely came up, with Trump saying he believed a deal was possible. On Trump's threat to hammer the European Union with sharply higher tariffs, Merz, leader of the bloc's biggest economy, had earlier argued that it must be self-confident in its negotiations with Washington. Nor did Trump confront Merz over free speech issues in Germany as US media had reported he might -- a bugbear the administration has repeatedly brought up with European leaders despite its own record. Merz told reporters in Washington ahead of the meeting that if Trump brought up German domestic politics "I will state my opinion very clearly if necessary." Trump and some in his administration have given vocal support to the far-right and anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which came second in February elections. US Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and former Trump adviser Elon Musk have all weighed in in support of the AfD, which in Germany is shunned by all other political parties. Despite the tensions, Merz had said earlier that he was "looking forward" to his first face-to-face meeting with Trump. The German chancellor is believed to have studied videos of previous Oval Office ambushes and learned how to stay calm and let Trump talk. dk/bgs
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump refuses to lay blame for war on Russia
US President Donald Trump once again refused to single out Russia as the agressor and instigator of the more than three-year conflict - in contrast to his German guest, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who put the blame squarely on Moscow. When asked if he is willing to slap Russia with more sanctions, Turmp said: "When I see the moment when it's not going to stop, we'll be very tough." But he added that he might hit Ukraine with sanctions. "It could be on both countries – it takes two to tango,"Trump said. Trump also likened Russia's war against Ukraine to two children who hate each other and are fighting in a playground, saying "sometimes you're better off letting them fight for awhile." Merz, however, was clear that Russia is the agressor and instigator of the conflict, while Trump was not so unequivacal. "We are on the side of Ukraine," Merz said, adding that Germany and the European Union are "trying to make them stronger and stronger." Later in the press conference German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, when asked if he agreed with that analogy, did not address the child comparison but said he and Trump agree that the war is bad. "We both agree on this war and how terrible this war is going on and we are both looking for ways to stop it very soon." Merz said he told Trump that the US president "is the key person in the world who can really" put an end to the war by "putting pressure on Russia." He said he would speak about this in his one-on-one talks with Trump later on Thursday.
