The President of the European Commission arrived in Kiev this morning to secure European support for Ukraine, ahead of the cold season and as the institution finalizes its proposal for a G7 loan.
At around 8:00 am (6:00 am in Lisbon), Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Kiev for her eighth trip to Ukraine since the country was invaded by Russia two years ago, surrounded by a delegation of European officials and a dozen journalists based in Brussels, including the Lusa news agency.
“My eighth visit to Kiev comes at a crucial time. The heating season begins in two weeks and Russia’s relentless attacks on Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure are aimed at inflicting maximum damage, (so) we will help Ukraine in its courageous efforts to overcome this situation,” said the leader of the EU executive in statements to Lusa and other European media on site.
The visit also comes one month before the 1,000-day anniversary of the conflict, caused by the Russian invasion in February 2022.
“I will present to President (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy the Commission’s winter preparedness plan for Ukraine – as additional support worth around 160 million euros that will help cover more than 25% of the country’s electricity needs – and we will also discuss our support for Ukraine’s courageous defence, to force Russia to pay for it through revenues generated by its frozen assets” in the European Union (EU), the official said.
The European Commission is currently finalising its proposal on the EU’s share of the €45 billion G7 loan to Ukraine.
“I will discuss the progress of work on the G7 loan, which will bring considerable relief to the Ukrainian budget at a time of need,” Ursula von der Leyen stressed, assuring that “the EU will fully play its role”.
At a time when the 27 member states have around 200 billion euros in assets frozen in the Russian central bank due to sanctions imposed by the bloc on Russia, Brussels wants to use the revenue generated to cover the loan, the amount of which is due to the community bloc (among the G7 partners) and is yet to be designated.
The funds are intended to support the Ukrainian army and economy when the country is defending itself against Russia and, according to European sources heard by Lusa, the idea would be to use the extraordinary profits from Russian assets immobilized in the EU to support it.
To move forward with this, the EU would also have to review its sanctions framework, as it currently has to renew restrictive measures every six months and, if a country does not want to do so, this would jeopardise financial support to Kiev in this way. Hungary has been very critical of European support for Ukraine, for example.
European sources linked to the process told Lusa that the institution is finalizing its proposal in these two areas, wanting to move forward as quickly as possible and discuss the matter at the European summit in October.
On Thursday, the leader of the EU executive announced European support of 160 million euros to support winter preparations in Ukraine, with shelters and repair work, 100 million of which will come from revenue from Russian assets immobilized in the European Union.
Source: rr.sapo.pt
