Over 118 billion: the EU has already spent nearly a year’s budget on Ukraine

Brussels – The European Union has already spent nearly the equivalent of a joint annual budget to support Ukraine. “The overall EU assistance to Ukraine and its people by the EU and Member States amounts so far to more than 118 billion,” the High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said in response to a parliamentary question. It is an impressive figure, considering that in 2023 alone, the common budget was 186.6 billion euros.

Helping Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky with his response to Russian military aggression is beginning to reach significant and unprecedented proportions. The over €118 billion in financial assistance, Borrell specifies, “includes about €43.5 billion in military support, of which €6.1 billion is from the European Peace Facility.” So far, almost a third of the economic effort of the 27 member states has served to fuel the Ukrainian war machine to enable defense and counter-attack. In this field, “EU support makes a difference, for instance, on air defense,” the High Representative further points out.

Figures and numbers, however, are partial and bound to be updated again. “The EU will continue to support Ukraine in the face of Russia’s war of aggression,” Borrell assures. It is a reassurance that is also the result of the evolution of a conflict that is no longer just between Moscow and Kyiv. “Russia has also started using missiles from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and perhaps soon Iranian ones,” the High Representative denounces. This escalation of the conflict does not allow for second thoughts. 

Thus, the political warning to all European Union partners. Whatever the moves and decisions of the new president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, the EU will have to keep score: “Any solution that ignores Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity would entail rewarding the aggressor and legitimizing attempts to redraw borders by force, not only in Europe.”