EU provides €6 billion to Ukraine under two programmes

The European Union has announced almost €6 billion in budget support for Ukraine.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in the European Parliament  that it is a moment for the EU to come with a "new impetus" to unmask Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin's "cynical attempt to buy time and bring him to the negotiation table".

"We must continue to raise the cost of war for Russia, also because the scars [of war – ed.] are becoming more and more obvious and visible in the Russian economy by now," she said.

She announced assistance for Ukraine under the ERA Loans mechanism and the Ukraine Facility.

"We will disburse today almost €6 billion under the ERA Loan and the Ukraine Facility to Ukraine. And this is why I very much welcome the European Council's very clear commitment… to cover Ukraine's financial needs for the next two years," von der Leyen added.

Roksolana Pidlasa, Head of the Budget Committee of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament), has recently said that Ukraine will receive €4.1 billion via ERA Loans and €1.9 billion via the Ukraine Facility.

In September, Ukraine received another €1 billion tranche of macro-financial assistance from the European Union under the G7's Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) initiative.

The European Commission has also recently proposed a plan that would allow EU governments to use up to €185 billion – most of Russia's sovereign assets currently frozen in Europe – to support Ukraine without confiscating them.

Approval of the plan has stalled over concerns in Belgium, where most of these Russian assets are held.

The European Union has stated that the issue of using frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine remains on the agenda, with a final decision expected in December.