In March we expect to create a separate instrument for Ukraine within the European Peace Facility: Prime Minister

On 1 February, the European Union adopted a new four-year EUR 50 billion assistance programme for Ukraine. Of this amount, EUR 39 billion will be allocated to support Ukraine’s state budget. This was announced by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

“This will help our Government to ensure financial stability and to implement priority budget expenditures, including all social programmes to help our people,” the Prime Minister said.

He added that the approved Ukraine Facility programme provided for EUR 8 billion in the form of a special investment instrument. According to the Ministry of Economy, this will attract an additional EUR 30 billion of investment.

“The Ukraine Facility programme is not only about money, but also about the transformation of our country. It is a plan to introduce European rules and regulations that will bring us closer to EU membership,” said Denys Shmyhal.

The Prime Minister noted that all 27 EU member states had voted in favour of this programme of support for Ukraine. According to him, this is a demonstration of Europe’s unity in support of Ukraine and a clear signal to russia that its strategy of waiting for Ukraine’s allies to stop supporting it will not work.

“In addition, European leaders have confirmed their intention to continue providing military assistance to Ukraine. In particular, in March we expect to create a separate instrument for Ukraine within the European Peace Facility. We are talking about EUR 20 billion of military assistance for the next 4 years,” the Prime Minister said.

Denys Shmyhal also underlined the EU’s position on the use and confiscation of frozen russian assets.

“Two years of work and constant advocacy by a large Ukrainian team, and today European leaders confirm the plan to use the proceeds of frozen russian assets. We welcome this decision, but Ukraine sees it only as the first intermediate step before confiscation, not as an alternative to confiscation,” the Prime Minister said.

He stressed that the Government and its partners would continue to work to ensure that russian assets were fully used for Ukraine’s resilience and recovery.