EU urges significant increase in military aid for Ukraine
The European Union has urged the injection of 3.5 billion euros ($3.85 billion) into the fund that is used by the bloc to provide military aid for Ukraine.
The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell made the appeal to European governments to boost the reservoir, which is known as "the European Peace Facility (EPF)," European sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
Already, as much as 4.6 billion euros ($4.9 billion) has been drawn from the fund to finance Ukraine's war machine, which has been facing off a Russian "special military operation" since last year.
Russia says it has launched the operation to defend the pro-Russia population in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk against persecution by Kiev.
The United States and its European allies have been flowing huge chunks of cash as well as remarkably advanced military equipment towards Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian operation.
Moscow says the sustained and generous financial and arms support for the Ukrainian military would only prolong the warfare.
Borrell's proposal requires the approval of the EU's national governments.
They agreed last December that, "in case of need," such an increase could be justified.
The fund, established in 2021, was originally conceived for the EU to help developing countries buy military equipment.
EU countries contribute to the fund according to the size of their economies.
Borrell's proposal came two days after Politico, an American news and analysis website, reported that the United States had problems providing funds for the weapons and munitions that it heads to Ukraine.
"The end of Ukraine aid is rapidly approaching and reupping it won’t be easy," Politico reported on Monday, citing an unnamed source.
The report revealed that of the $48 billion aid package that had been approved in December last year, only $6 billion was left, which would run up by midsummer.
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