EU Disburses €3.47 Billion to Ukraine for Drones, Air Defence, and Jets
European Union Financial Support for Ukraine's Defence
BRUSSELS, July 30 (Reuters) - The European Union has disbursed €3.47 billion ($4 billion) to Ukraine to finance the procurement of more drones, missiles, air defence and Swedish-made Gripen fighter jets, the European Commission said on Thursday.
The disbursement is part of a €90 billion loan approved by the EU earlier this year.
Breakdown of EU Disbursements
Initial Instalments
• The Commission paid a first €3.2 billion instalment to Ukraine on June 25 to help the country's government financing.
Defence Procurement Funding
• The EU also transferred €3.9 billion on June 30 for drone procurement and €1.1 billion for defence procurement, bringing total disbursements for defence purposes to €8.5 billion, a Commission spokesperson told reporters on Thursday.
Future Transfers and Expectations
• The EU expects to transfer €28 billion for defence by the end of this year, the spokesperson said. "So it is going to be again a very busy summer," he added.($1 = 0.8722 euros)
Reporting Credits
(Reporting by Inti Landauro, editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Kirsten Donovan)
