Regarding financial support to Ukraine, the total volume of the European Union's joint borrowings may exceed 200 billion euros. Brussels will likely have to raise more than an additional 40 billion euros in loan funds, in addition to the 166 billion euros already transferred to Kyiv, writes the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, based on its own calculations and data from the European Commission.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier stated that the country requires an additional 70 billion euros. Under current plans, 46 billion euros of that amount should be provided by the European Union. These funds are needed amid Ukraine's growing budget deficit and the worsening economic outlook of the country.
One source of funding is expected to be revenues from frozen Russian assets located in Europe. However, these funds are insufficient to meet Kyiv's needs. According to the European Commission, over the past more than two years, Ukraine has received about 8 billion euros from such revenues. Income from frozen assets amounts to about 4 billion euros annually, while the EU's planned additional contribution alone reaches 46 billion euros.
At the same time, the legal use of the principal amount of Russian assets remains a contentious issue. Therefore, raising new joint loans is considered one of the most likely options for further financing Ukraine.
The prospect of new multi-billion euro liabilities is causing controversy in Europe. Dietmar Bartsch, a representative of Germany's Left Party, stated that European citizens should not pay for Russia's war against Ukraine at the expense of social spending cuts. He called on German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the European Union to be more active in peace negotiations.
At the same time, Marcel Fratzscher, head of Germany's Economic Research Institute, has spoken in favor of joint European bonds. In his opinion, in the long term, such borrowings should be backed by common tax revenues.
The EU has already used joint borrowings to finance aid to Ukraine, including through macro-financial assistance programs and the Ukraine Facility. Now European authorities must decide how to meet Kyiv’s additional funding needs without directly using the principal amounts of the frozen Russian assets.
