(MENAFN- UkrinForm) EU foreign ministers have agreed on a legal framework for the use of profits from frozen Russian assets for Ukraine's defense. Ukraine will be able to use the first tranche of €1.4 billion in July and get assistance worth €1 billion by the end of the year.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said this at a press conference following a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.
“The windfall profits coming from Russian assets frozen in Europe – not the assets
themselves
- will be used in the swiftest possible manner for the benefit of Ukraine.
€1.4 billion will be available in the course of the next month, and another
€1
billion by the end of the year.
This will be allocated to Ukraine, but for these three purposes: air defence, ammunition and supporting the Ukrainian industry - overcoming or circumventing this structural difficulty that we have had in the last year and a half,” Borrell said.
Read also: EU passes 14th
package of Russia sanctions
Borrell noted that military support to Ukraine remains the most important issue today in concrete terms, because Ukraine
needs more air defences, more ammunition and more support to develop its own industrial capacities.
“This
weekend, Kharkiv suffered [from] aerial attacks, [resulting in] numerous casualties and big infrastructure damage. Putin continues attacking, targeting mainly the energy infrastructure.
It is clear that Putin wants to prove that Ukraine is vulnerable, and we have to prove that we will support Ukraine,” he said.
He noted that ministers today agreed on a legal framework for the use of profits from immobilised Russian assets to be allocated to the European Peace Facility. However, have not moved forward with other payments under the European Peace Fund earmarked for military support to Ukraine, totaling about EUR 6 billion, as one country is blocking the use of these funds.
“Unhappily, we came went
out of the Council
exactly as we came in
from the point of view of the seven legal acts [intended] to
deblock
the European Peace Facility.
We still have one country blocking the use of about €6 billion from the European Peace Facility,” Borrell said, adding that ministers are working on the ways to overcome and circumvent these structural complications that we have been experiencing for the past year and a half.
He noted that one of these methods was used when deciding on the use of proceeds from frozen Russian assets that were to go to the European Peace Fund and be used for Ukraine's defense.
“We understand that legally, since one Member State did not participate in the decision to use these assets, it has not the right
to
participate in deciding to which purpose they are allocated.
Work will now speed up without having this blockage that we still have to solve on the European Peace Facility. The leaders will discuss about it at the next European Council,” Borrell said.
As reported earlier, the EU Foreign Affairs Council met in Luxembourg today to consider continued assistance to Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression.
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