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EU financial aid to Kiev totals 13.5 bln euros since year’s start — Ukrainian PM

It is noted that the total amount of support provided by the European Union to Kiev since February 2022 is now about 70 billion euros

MOSCOW, September 22. /TASS/. The EU’s financial support to Kiev has reached 13.5 billion euros since the beginning of 2023, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denis Shmygal announced.

"Ukraine today received the eighth tranche of 1.5 bln euros macro-financial assistance from the EU. In total, EU budget support to in 2023 already amounts to 13.5 billion euros," he wrote on the X social network X (formerly known as Twitter). The total amount of support provided by the European Union to Kiev since February 2022 is now about 70 billion euros, Shmygal added.

On Thursday, Ukraine also received another grant from the United States.

Kiev openly declares that they can only cover military expenses on their own, the rest is financed with the help of Western partners. For 2023, the Ukrainian authorities had already planned a record deficit of $38 billion and President Vladimir Zelensky invited the West to fully cover it. Later, Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergey Marchenko called for caution with loans from Western partners, since future generations will have to pay for them. However, now Ukraine’s draft budget for 2024 includes an even larger deficit of about $42 billion. As former Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov noted, Ukraine is "eating from the hand of NATO countries" and will cease to exist as a state without Western lending.

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Ukraine crisis EU

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