The European Commission on Wednesday proposed five billion euros in financial aid to Ukraine, in the latest instalment of a promised nine-billion-euro rescue package agreed by EU leaders in May.
“The situation in Ukraine requires our full support,” the commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a tweet announcing the emergency loans to Kyiv.
A European diplomat said the rescue was part of the $39 billion in aid promised by the G7 group of nations to prop up Ukraine’s battered public coffers.
Originally promised by European leaders in May, the EU’s nine billion euros ($9 billion) was held up as some member states argued over whether a country at war was in a position to sign on to long-term loans.
Brussels disbursed the first one billion euros of the package in early August and, on Wednesday, the commission said the remaining three billion euros “will be provided as soon as possible”.
