War in Ukraine. EU countries agree to purchase weapons for kyiv worth 5 billion
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The 27 member countries of the EU reached an agreement on Wednesday to add 5 billion euros to a fund aimed at financing the purchase of weapons for Ukraine, which has been demanding more ammunition against Russian forces for months.
” Agreement ! », announced on X the Belgian presidency of the Council of the EU. “EU ambassadors agreed on the principle of reforming the European Peace Facility (EFF) to support Ukraine with a budget of 5 billion euros for 2024,” a- she added.
Weeks of negotiations
After a little more than two years of war, the Ukrainian army is short of manpower and in need of munitions and air defense systems to contain an offensive Russian army.
The EU has already spent more than six billion euros within the framework of its European Peace Facility, intended mainly to reimburse arms deliveries made by certain member states to Ukraine.
The decision announced Wednesday was taken after weeks of negotiations due to opposition from France and Germany.
Paris wanted to obtain guarantees on the “made in Europe” of weapons financed by European funds, and Germany had expressed its reluctance regarding this European mechanism, preferring bilateral aid.
28 billion since 2022
According to diplomats, Germany has obtained that its direct contribution to Ukraine – it has promised eight billion euros this year – be partly deducted from its financial support to the European aid fund in kyiv. Berlin is the largest contributor to this fund, the budget of which is supplemented by member states according to their gross domestic product (GDP).
France, for its part, obtained, according to the same source, that “priority” be given to the European defense industry when a Member State places an order for weapons, unless it proves too difficult to obtain them. within reasonable time limits.
In total, the EU and its member states have already allocated some 28 billion euros in military aid to Ukraine, since the invasion of this country by Russia on February 24, 2022.
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