BRUSSELS, October 23. /TASS/. The EU is ready to finance two-thirds of the extra 70 billion euros requested by Ukraine, or about 46.7 billion euros, European Council President Antonio Costa said.
"Normally we cover two thirds of the financial needs of Ukraine. In the last European Council, we agreed to ensure the additional needs of Ukraine, and we tasked the Commission to present concrete solutions on this," he said in an interview with the Rapporteur news portal. "The Commission is working and I presume that in November we can take a decision on this." If European leaders fail to reach an agreement at an extraordinary meeting on November 26-27, they will try again at a meeting on December 17-18, Costa added.
The EU has urged the United Kingdom, Canada and Norway, among others, to step up their contributions and provide additional funding to meet Kiev’s new request, the news portal reported.
Earlier, Vladimir Zelensky said at an EU summit that Kiev requires an additional 70 billion euros from the EU for military needs in 2027. European officials were stunned by Zelensky’s demand, Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported on October 19. Before that, EU countries had already allocated 90 billion euros to Kiev, with the funds set to be disbursed over the next two years.