This week on Wednesday, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, condemned Russia’s attacks on Ukraine and announced that the European Union would allocate 1.4 billion euros to Ukraine from the frozen Russian asset revenues.
Recently, both Russia and Ukraine have increased their operations, using ballistic missiles and drones to strike each other’s facilities, with Russian airstrikes on Ukraine becoming particularly frequent.
Von der Leyen wrote on the social media platform X on Wednesday, “Once again, we woke up to hear about Russia launching airstrikes on Ukraine, committing outrageous atrocities. Russia must pay the price for the destruction it has caused.”
She stated that the 1.4 billion euros extracted from frozen Russian assets would be used to “support Ukraine in continuing to resist Russia’s illegal war.”
In the early hours of the day before Von der Leyen’s post (Wednesday), Russia carried out missile and drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and its surrounding areas, resulting in at least 17 deaths and 44 injuries.
In the past few weeks, Russia has intensified its attacks on Ukraine, targeting multiple civilian objectives. Throughout the summer, Russian airstrikes on Ukraine have become increasingly frequent, with experts attributing this to a severe shortage of missile interceptors in Ukraine’s air defense system.
In 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Shortly thereafter, the European Union froze the assets of the Central Bank of Russia within the EU’s jurisdiction. Although these assets have not been affected so far, the profits generated from them have been used to support Ukraine.
According to the European Commission, these Russian assets have generated a total wealth of 8 billion euros. The 1.4 billion euros allocated to Ukraine in this latest round is the revenue from Russian assets that the EU has recently released to Ukraine.
The largest portion of the 1.4 billion euros — 95% (approximately 1.33 billion euros) — will not be provided in the form of direct military assistance. This funding will be disbursed through the Ukraine Loan Cooperation Mechanism (ULCM) to help Ukraine repay loans obtained through the G7 and EU initiatives.
The remaining 70 million euros will be distributed through the European Peace Fund (EPF), which provides military assistance to Ukraine.