Washington, D.C., 26 January 2024
The European Union (EU) and our 27 Member States remain united and determined in our unprecedented support for Ukraine.By bringing war back to Europe, Putin plans not only to destroy Ukraine and destabilize Europe, but tear up international law and the UN Charter and undermine peace and security in the entire world, with dire consequences for vital American and European global security interests.
Since the start of Russia’s illegal war, we have worked in lockstep with the United States and other partners to impose massive sanctions on Russia, its military, and its economy, as well as to isolate Russia internationally.
The EU also moved at lightning speed to diversify our energy supplies and decouple from Russian fossil fuels, banning Russian coal and oil imports and drastically reducing gas imports. All this while energy prices for our citizens and companies skyrocketed, reaching as high as ten times their 2021 benchmarks before recently returning to more normal levels. The U.S. commitment to support Europe in substituting U.S. LNG for the majority of imported Russian gas has been instrumental in derailing Putin’s plans.
To support Ukraine itself, since the start of the war, the EU and our Member States have made available over $96 billion* in financial, military, humanitarian, and refugee assistance, with this increasing regularly. This figure includes an unprecedented commitment of up to $19.3 billion in financial assistance for 2023, disbursed in regular monthly increments to ensure stable financing for the running of the Ukrainian state.
Collective EU and EU Member State support to Ukraine includes:
- Close to $47 billion in financial and budgetary support and in humanitarian and emergency assistance. This support is as essential as military assistance to ensure Ukraine’s success on the battlefield. It allows Ukraine to keep paying wages and pensions and maintain essential public services, such as hospitals, schools, and housing for relocated people. It also ensures macroeconomic stability, and helps restore critical infrastructure destroyed. It includes:
- $19.3 billion of financial assistance to Ukraine in 2023, which has already been disbursed
- $7.7 billion in emergency EU macro-financial assistance and $663 million in budget support in 2022
- $13.2 billion of financial assistance directly from EU Member States in grants, loans, and guarantees
- $2.8 billion in loans from the EIB and EBRD, guaranteed by the EU budget
- $2.1 billion in humanitarian aid, emergency assistance, and crisis response including 5,400+ power generators, and $122 million to rebuild Ukrainian schools
- $630 million in bilateral cooperation to increase Ukraine’s resilience and support reforms
- $2.1 billion in humanitarian aid directly from EU Member States
- Over 98,000 tonnes of in-kind assistance, valued at $862 million, have been provided via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism by 35 participating countries, coordinated by the EU
- The EU has coordinated over 2,800 medical evacuations of Ukrainian patients to provide them with specialised healthcare in hospitals across Europe
- $1 billion of additional EU support is being mobilised for Ukraine’s fast recovery, as part of the commitment made during the EU-Ukraine Summit in February 2023
- Over $30 billion in military assistance, and constantly growing – ranging from ammunition to air-defence systems, Leopard tanks, and fighter jets. This includes an unprecedented $6 billion from the “European Peace Facility,” in addition to supplies provided directly on a bilateral basis by our Member States. On ammunition for Ukraine, EU support includes $2.2 billion for the joint procurement and delivery of up to an additional one million rounds of artillery ammunition by early 2024, and an additional $535 million to urgently boost EU defence industry capacities in ammunition production. The EU is today the largest military training provider to the Ukrainian armed forces — by the end of 2023, 40,000 Ukrainian military personnel will be trained under the EU’s $390 million Military Assistance Mission. An additional $27 million has been provided to support Ukraine’s de-mining of liberated territories temporarily occupied by Russian armed forces.
- Up to $18 billion from the EU budget to support Ukrainian refugees who have fled to EU Member States since February 2022. Close to 8 million refugees have been recorded in the EU, mainly women, children, and older persons, and more than 4 million Ukrainians have registered for temporary protection in the EU, which means they are entitled to work, accommodation, healthcare, as well as schooling for their children. Today, close to 20 percent of Ukraine’s children are taking refuge in the EU.
- Over $1 billion to boost “EU Solidarity Lanes” to transport Ukrainian food to the world and address the food security crisis caused by Russia’s war. These lanes have already helped Ukraine export over 60 million tonnes of grains and other related food products, and generated more than $45 billion of much needed revenue for Ukraine’s economy. As part of the Grain from Ukraine initiative, the European Commission will finance the transport of 40,000 tonnes of Ukrainian grain to vulnerable countries.
- We have temporarily suspended EU import duties for exports from Ukraine. The latest figures show Ukraine’s exports are exceeding pre-war levels, again with massive beneficial consequences for Ukraine’s wartime economy.
The EU’s solidarity with Ukraine is unshakeable, even as European citizens shoulder the lion’s share of the economic and humanitarian costs of this war.
We are grateful to the United States for its unwavering bipartisan support to Ukraine, and for standing with the European Union as we jointly work to ensure Ukraine’s victory in its ongoing fight for survival as an independent country and a sovereign nation.
Standing together against Putin’s brutality will be even more crucial in the months to come as we continue to address Ukraine’s needs and hold Russia accountable for its criminal actions.
* EUR values converted into USD at the 12-month average ECB reference exchange rate as of 24 January.